Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) is moving out of the laboratory and into real network roadmaps. Across the International ISAC Innovation Forum 2026, the O-RAN Alliance ISAC Workshop, and recent industry messaging from major vendors, one theme is consistent: ISAC is no longer being framed as only a 6G radio feature.
It is emerging as a distributed, AI-enabled sensing platform that spans radio, edge, core, cloud, governance, and application exposure. In other words: Radio Frequency (RF) Sensing is essential — but it is not sufficient.
ISAC is evolving beyond radio – from sensing to intelligence
ISAC is already part of 5G-Advanced and will be foundational for 6G. However, the industry focus has shifted from pure radio innovation to system-level capability. The key question is no longer whether the Radio Access Network (RAN) can sense, but whether the network can deliver actionable intelligence to applications.
Lower layers in the RAN – Radio Unit (RU), Distributed Unit (DU) and Centralised Unit (CU) – enable waveform transmission, echo capture and basic signal processing. However, the output is only raw observation data. Real value is created in higher layers through fusion, AI-driven classification, tracking, mapping and orchestration. This is where sensing becomes usable intelligence.
Multimodal network-level ISAC raises complexity
As ISAC evolves from single-site to multi-site (multi-static) sensing, the challenge increases significantly. Multiple distributed observations must be synchronised, fused and interpreted in real time. This transforms ISAC into a system-level problem requiring AI, orchestration, and advanced processing rather than just radio capability.
RF sensing alone has limitations in resolution and classification accuracy. Combining RF with radar, LiDAR, camera and environmental sensors improves reliability and creates a complete understanding of the environment. Fusion across modalities is essential for safety-critical and real-world deployments.
Multimodal and multi-static sensing turn the RAN into a massive, distributed sensing engine – but only AI‑RAN architectures can make sense of it. The need to fuse diverse sensor inputs across many sites in real time creates a natural demand for AI-driven processing, orchestration, and programmable infrastructure at the network edge. This is why ISAC is not just relevant to AI‑RAN – it is one of the clearest use cases justifying its evolution.
Opportunities for telecom operators
ISAC allows operators to move beyond connectivity toward providing physical-world intelligence. Key value areas include network-as-a-sensor, sensing for network optimisation, and sensing-as-a-service with APIs and ecosystem exposure. This creates new revenue streams and business models.
High-value use cases include industrial automation, transportation, drone and airspace management, smart cities, buildings, healthcare and network optimisation. Drone and low-altitude use cases are emerging as early drivers due to strong demand and clear business value.
Why ISAC matters to Unikie
We at Unikie believe the real breakthrough lies in multi-sensor fusion. Radio gives broad coverage, infrastructure reuse, and the ability to sense passive objects. But radio alone will not always provide the fidelity, confidence, or semantic understanding needed for real deployments.
The future of ISAC is layered: radio (ISAC), radar, LiDAR, cameras, infrared, audio, and environmental sensors fused into a coherent, real-time world model. In that model, communication service providers (CSPs) can evolve from connectivity providers into physical-world intelligence providers — exposing multimodal sensing data and higher-level insights to third-party application ecosystems through standardized APIs.
Unikie focuses on the critical upper-layer processing of ISAC: sensor fusion, AI-driven perception, multi-site tracking and edge-to-core deployment. These capabilities bridge the gap between raw sensing and actionable intelligence, enabling real-world deployment and monetisation.
Unikie is a member of the AI-RAN Alliance which creates opportunity to collaborate withing the Alliance ecosystem developing future-proof sensing architectures and solutions. Multimodal sensing is a key driver behind AI‑RAN Alliance’s interest as it pushes the RAN into a data-intensive, AI-driven domain where traditional architectures are no longer sufficient. Aggregating and fusing sensing data across multiple sites requires distributed compute, AI inference, and orchestration – precisely the capabilities AI‑RAN aims to standardise and accelerate.
ISAC will be a cornerstone of 6G, but RF sensing alone is not enough. The real value comes from combining sensing with AI, fusion, and application-layer intelligence. Companies that master this full stack will define the future of sensing-enabled networks.
Author
Mariusz Rudnicki
Mariusz Rudnicki is a senior telecom and edge computing leader with close to 25 years of international experience spanning 2G–6G RAN, Cloud and Edge Computing, and AI-driven telecom solutions. Mariusz has held global sales, business development, and delivery leadership roles, working closely with Tier-1 operators, network equipment providers, and silicon vendors across Europe, North America, and APAC.
Mariusz is deeply involved in the evolution of Telecom, with hands-on experience across virtualized and cloud-native RAN, xPU-accelerated architectures, and emerging Edge AI business models. He actively collaborates with the broader ecosystem to bridge advanced network technologies with real-world deployment and commercialization. At Unikie, his focus is on translating Physical AI concepts into scalable, deployable solutions at the network edge.
