Intelligent Rotatable Antenna for Integrated Sensing, Communication, and Computation: Challenges and Opportunities

Integrated sensing, communication, and computation (ISCC) has emerged as a promising paradigm for enabling intelligent services in future sixth-generation (6G) networks. However, existing ISCC systems based on fixed-antenna architectures inherently lack spatial adaptability to cope with the signal degradation and dynamic environmental conditions. Recently, (non-fixed) flexible antenna architectures, such as fluid antenna system (FAS) and movable antenna (MA) have gained significant interest. Among them, intelligent rotatable antenna (IRA) is an emerging technology that offers significant potential to better support the comprehensive services of target sensing, data transmission, and edge computing. This article investigates a novel IRA-enabled ISCC framework to enhance received signal strength, wireless coverage, and spatial adaptability to dynamic wireless environments by flexibly adjusting the boresight of directional antennas. Building upon this, we introduce the fundamentals of IRA technology and explore IRA’s benefits for improving system performance while providing potential task-oriented applications. Then, we discuss the main design issues and provide solutions for implementing IRA-based ISCC systems. Finally, experimental results are provided to demonstrate the great potential of IRA-enabled ISCC system, thus paving the way for more robust and efficient future wireless networks.