Polarforming for Wireless Networks: Opportunities and Challenges

Polarforming emerges as a promising technique for manipulating the polarization of electromagnetic (EM) waves by shaping the polarization of an antenna into a desired state. By dynamically adjusting antenna polarization, polarforming enables real-time polarization matching or mismatching with received EM waves, thereby leveraging polarization degrees of freedom (DoFs) to enhance wireless communication performance. In this article, we first present an overview of the fundamental principles and design approaches underlying the polarforming technique. We then analyze the key advantages of polarforming, including hardware cost reduction, depolarization mitigation, channel adaptation, signal power enhancement, and interference suppression. Furthermore, we explore promising applications of polarforming for next-generation wireless networks. Numerical case studies demonstrate the substantial performance gains of polarforming over conventional fixed-polarization antenna (FPA) systems, along with a discussion of implementation challenges to motivate future research.