Spatio-Temporal 3D Point Clouds from WiFi-CSI Data via Transformer Networks

Abstract: Joint communication and sensing (JC&S) is emerging as a key component in 5G and 6G networks, enabling dynamic adaptation to environmental changes and enhancing contextual awareness for optimized communication. By leveraging real-time environmental data, JC&S improves resource allocation, reduces latency, and enhances power efficiency, while also supporting simulations and predictive modeling. This makes it a key technology for reactive systems and digital twins. These systems can respond to environmental events in real-time, offering transformative potential in sectors like smart cities, healthcare, and Industry 5.0, where adaptive and multimodal interaction is critical to enhance real-time decision-making. In this work, we present a transformer-based architecture that processes temporal Channel State Information (CSI) data, specifically amplitude and phase, to generate 3D point clouds of indoor environments. The model utilizes a multi-head attention to capture complex spatio-temporal relationships in CSI data and is adaptable to different CSI configurations. We evaluate the architecture on the MM-Fi dataset, using two different protocols to capture human presence in indoor environments. The system demonstrates strong potential for accurate 3D reconstructions and effectively distinguishes between close and distant objects, advancing JC&S applications for spatial sensing in future wireless networks.