Fast Vortex Beam Alignment for OAM Mode Multiplexing in LOS MIMO Networks

TL;DR

This paper introduces OrthoVortex, a rapid and practical method for aligning OAM beams in LOS MIMO systems, significantly improving capacity and interference mitigation through phase correction based on misalignment estimation.

Contribution

OrthoVortex is the first practical, experimental framework for OAM beam alignment that estimates misalignment angles using cross-modal phase signatures, enabling real-world high-capacity communication.

Findings

Achieves mean absolute error of 0.69° azimuth and 2.54° elevation in misalignment estimation.

Yields over 12 dB increase in SIR and 4.5× link capacity improvement.

Validated through RF experiments at 120 GHz with low-cost metasurfaces.

Abstract

Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM)-based communication systems offer high-capacity multiplexing in line-of-sight (LOS) scenarios; yet, their performance is sensitive to nodal misalignment, which disrupts modal orthogonality, hindering the data multiplexing gain. To tackle this challenge, we present OrthoVortex, a novel framework that estimates the misalignment angles and applies the appropriate phase correction to restore orthogonality between modes. Unlike purely theoretical prior efforts that rely on impractical fully digital arrays or exhaustive beam scans, OrthoVortex introduces and leverages the cross-modal phase, as a unique signature for identifying the misalignment angles. OrthoVortex is a few-shot alignment technique, making it feasible for real-world implementations. Our key contributions include: (i) a robust angle estimation and phase correction framework based on the physics of OAM propagation that estimates the misalignment and restores modal orthogonality, (ii) the first-ever experimental validation of OAM beam alignment with RF transceivers, and (iii) a comprehensive analysis of practical constraints, including the impact of antenna count and bandwidth. Simulations and over-the-air measurements using low-cost, rapidly prototyped metasurfaces operating at 120 GHz demonstrate that OrthoVortex achieves fast and precise misalignment estimation (mean absolute error of $0.69^{\circ}$ for azimuth and $2.54^{\circ}$ for elevation angle). Further, OrthoVortex can mitigate the inter-modal interference, yielding more than 12 dB increase in signal-to-interference ratio and more than 4.5-fold improvement in link capacity.