Instantaneous Polarimetry with Zak-OTFS

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel Zak-OTFS based method for instantaneous polarimetry that allows full environmental scattering response estimation from a single transmission, significantly reducing computational complexity and improving clutter resilience.

Contribution

The paper presents a new Zak-OTFS based approach for instantaneous polarimetry that operates with near-linear complexity, unlike previous quadratic methods, enabling real-time environmental sensing.

Findings

Achieves ideal polarimetric target detection and parameter estimation.

Reduces computational complexity from quadratic to near-linear.

Enhances clutter resilience compared to existing methods.

Abstract

Polarimetry, which is the ability to measure the scattering response of the environment across orthogonal polarizations, is fundamental to enhancing wireless communication and radar system performance. In this paper, we utilize the Zak-OTFS modulation to enable instantaneous polarimetry within a single transmission frame. We transmit a Zak-OTFS carrier waveform and a spread carrier waveform mutually unbiased to it simultaneously over orthogonal polarizations. The mutual unbiasedness of the two waveforms enables the receiver to estimate the full polarimetric response of the scattering environment from a single received frame. Unlike existing methods for instantaneous polarimetry with computational complexity quadratic in the time-bandwidth product, the proposed method enables instantaneous polarimetry at near-linear complexity in the time-bandwidth product. Via numerical simulations, we show ideal polarimetric target detection and parameter estimation results with the proposed method, with improvements in computational complexity and greater clutter resilience over comparable baselines.