Universal Polarization

A method to polarize channels universally is introduced. The method is based on combining channels of unequal capacities in each polarization step, as opposed to the standard method of combining identical channels. The locations of the good and bad channels that emerge upon polarization are only a function of the polar transform chosen, and are otherwise independent of the channel being polarized. This yields a simple method to design universal polar codes for discrete memoryless channels. It is also shown that the less noisy ordering of channels is preserved under polarization, and thus, a good polar code for a given channel will perform well over a less noisy one.