Shadow Area and Degrees of Freedom for Free-Space Communication

The number of degrees of freedom (NDoF) in a communication channel fundamentally limits the number of independent spatial modes available for transmitting and receiving information. Although the NDoF can be computed numerically for specific configurations using singular value decomposition (SVD) of the channel operator, this approach provides limited physical insight. In this paper, we introduce a simple analytical estimate for the NDoF between arbitrarily shaped transmitter and receiver regions in free space. In the electrically large limit, where the NDoF is high, it is well approximated by the mutual shadow area, measured in units of wavelength squared. This area corresponds to the projected overlap of the regions, integrated over all lines of sight, and captures their effective spatial coupling. The proposed estimate generalizes and unifies several previously established results, including those based on Weyl’s law, shadow area, and the paraxial approximation. We analyze several example configurations to illustrate the accuracy of the estimate and validate it through comparisons with numerical SVD computations of the propagation channel. The results provide both practical tools and physical insight for the design and analysis of high-capacity communication and sensing systems.