Inhomogeneous Polarization-Based Beam Alignment

Beam alignment is essential to ensure the performance of systems that utilize narrow beams. In high-frequency communication systems, the management of numerous narrow beams requires substantial resources for beam alignment. Conventional beam alignment methodologies are based on the transmission of a single piece of information by a single beam. This results in a trade-off between beam size and directional precision. In this paper, we propose the utilization of inhomogeneously polarized beams to facilitate the transmission of multiple pieces of information through a single beam. This approach enables a more precise directional estimation, even as the beam size increases. Inhomogeneous polarization-based beam alignment has been demonstrated to be highly efficient; however, its performance is sensitive to errors in polarization measurement. In this study, we propose a transceiver structure for inhomogeneous polarization-based beam alignment and a method to address polarization measurement errors. The performance characteristics of the proposed technique are evaluated in an atmospheric channel environment where polarization measurement error exists. The proposed system demonstrates a higher degree of alignment accuracy than the conventional beam alignment procedure using the same physical resources.