Integrated sensing and communication, or ISAC, combines ordinary wireless data transmission with sensing functions that learn about the environment from radio signals. A network could analyze reflected signals to estimate the location, movement or shape of an object while still serving connected devices.
The attraction is shared infrastructure: some antennas, spectrum, signals and computing resources may support both communications and sensing. Research examples include traffic monitoring, industrial automation and environmental awareness. The accuracy depends on radio geometry, bandwidth, hardware and signal processing.
ISAC is one of the use scenarios in the ITU's IMT-2030 framework, and engineers are still defining technical requirements and evaluating designs. It should not be presented as a standard, universal feature already present in commercial 6G networks. Sensing also raises privacy and data-governance questions where information about people or spaces can be inferred.
When assessing a claimed ISAC demonstration, look for what was actually detected, the operating environment, the error rate and whether the system was a research prototype or interoperable network equipment.