Commodity Wi-Fi-Based Wireless Sensing Advancements over the Past Five Years

Abstract

With the compelling popularity of integrated sensing and communication (ISAC), Wi-Fi sensing has drawn increasing attention in recent years. Starting from 2010, Wi-Fi channel state information (CSI)-based wireless sensing has enabled various exciting applications such as indoor localization, target imaging, activity recognition, and vital sign monitoring. In this paper, we retrospect the latest achievements of Wi-Fi sensing using commodity-off-the-shelf (COTS) devices from the past 5 years in detail. Specifically, this paper first presents the background of the CSI signal and related sensing models. Then, recent studies are categorized from two perspectives, i.e., according to their application scenario diversity and the corresponding sensing methodology difference, respectively. Next, this paper points out the challenges faced by Wi-Fi sensing, including domain dependency and sensing range limitation. Finally, three imperative research directions are highlighted, which are critical for realizing more ubiquitous and practical Wi-Fi sensing in real-life applications.