Immune optical communications using coherence rank

A system for performing coherence rank communication, the system comprising:

• an analyzer configured to create a coherence matrix using degrees of freedom of an optical signal detected via an optical detector configured to detect optical signals, the signals including information that represents a coherence of the degrees of freedom of the signal,
• wherein a rank of a matrix is a number of its nonzero eigenvalues, and
• wherein the ranks of the coherence matrix are configured to be used as encoders or symbols of signals in optical communication schemes.

A system for performing coherence rank communication, the system comprising:

• an encoder configured to encode information onto a signal using degrees of freedom generating a signal with a coherence matrix of the degrees of freedom,
• wherein a rank of a matrix is a number of its nonzero eigenvalues, and
• wherein the ranks of the coherence matrix are configured to be used as encoders or symbols of signals in optical communication schemes.