New data services and applications are emerging continuously and enhancing the mobile broadband experience. The ability to cope with these varied and sophisticated services and applications will be a key success factor for the highly demanding future network infrastructure. One such technology that could help address the problem would be optical wireless communications (OWC), which presents a growing research interest in the last few years for indoor and outdoor applications. This paper is an overview of the OWC systems focusing on visible light communications, free space optics, transcutaneous OWC, underwater OWC, and optical scattering communications.

Emerging Optical Wireless Communications-Advances and Challenges

New high-data-rate multimedia services and applications are evolving continuously and exponentially increasing the demand for wireless capacity of fifth-generation (5G) and beyond. The existing radio frequency (RF) communication spectrum is insufficient to meet the demands of future high-data-rate 5G services. Optical wireless communication (OWC), which uses an ultra-wide range of unregulated spectrum, has emerged as a promising solution to overcome the RF spectrum crisis. It has attracted growing research interest worldwide in the last decade for indoor and outdoor applications. OWC offloads huge data traffic applications from RF networks. A 100 Gb/s data rate has already been demonstrated through OWC. It offers services indoors as well as outdoors, and communication distances range from several nm to more than 10 000 km. This paper provides a technology overview and a review on optical wireless technologies, such as visible light communication, light fidelity, optical camera communication, free space optical communication, and light detection and ranging. We survey the key technologies for understanding OWC and present state-of-the-art criteria in aspects, such as classification, spectrum use, architecture, and applications. The key contribution of this paper is to clarify the differences among different promising optical wireless technologies and between these technologies and their corresponding similar existing RF technologies.

A Comparative Survey of Optical Wireless Technologies: Architectures and Applications

During the last decade, the exponential growth of mobile devices and wireless services created a huge demand for radio frequency-based technologies. Meanwhile, the lighting industry has been revolutionized due to the popularization of LED light bulbs, which are more economical and efficient. In that context, visible light communication (VLC) is a disruptive technology based on LEDs that offers a free spectrum and high data rate, which can potentially serve as a complementary technology to the current radio frequency standards. In this paper, we present a comprehensive state-of-the-art survey of VLC, as well as the main concepts and challenges related to this emergent area. We overview VLC technology, from its physical aspects and communication architecture to its main applications and research challenges. Finally, we present the main research platforms available today, along with a deep analysis of the system design and future directions in the field.

Visible Light Communication: Concepts, Applications and Challenges

Ultra-high bandwidth, negligible latency and seamless communication are envisioned as milestones that will revolutionize the way by which societies create, distribute and consume information. The remarkable expansion of wireless data traffic has advocated the investigation of suitable regimes in the radio spectrum to satisfy users’ escalating requirements and allow the exploitation of massive capacity and massive connectivity. To this end, the Terahertz (THz) frequency band (0.1-10 THz) has received noticeable attention in the research community as an ideal choice for scenarios involving high-speed transmission. As such, in this work, we present an up-to-date review paper to analyze key concepts associated with the THz system architecture. THz generation methods are first addressed by highlighting the recent progress in the devices technology. Moreover, the recently proposed channel models available for propagation at THz band frequencies are introduced. A comprehensive comparison is then presented between the THz wireless communication and its other contenders. In addition, several applications of THz communication are discussed taking into account various scales. Further, we highlight the milestones achieved regarding THz standardization activities. Finally, a future outlook is provided by presenting and envisaging several potential use cases and attempts to guide the deployment of the THz frequency band.

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Terahertz Band: The Last Piece of RF Spectrum Puzzle for Communication Systems

The fifth generation (5G) mobile networks are envisaged to enable a plethora of breakthrough advancements in wireless technologies, providing support of a diverse set of services over a single platform. While the deployment of 5G systems is scaling up globally, it is time to look ahead for beyond 5G systems. This is mainly driven by the emerging societal trends, calling for fully automated systems and intelligent services supported by extended reality and haptics communications. To accommodate the stringent requirements of their prospective applications, which are data-driven and defined by extremely low-latency, ultra-reliable, fast and seamless wireless connectivity, research initiatives are currently focusing on a progressive roadmap towards the sixth generation (6G) networks, which are expected to bring transformative changes to this premise. In this article, we shed light on some of the major enabling technologies for 6G, which are expected to revolutionize the fundamental architectures of cellular networks and provide multiple homogeneous artificial intelligence-empowered services, including distributed communications, control, computing, sensing, and energy, from its core to its end nodes. In particular, the present paper aims to answer several 6G framework related questions: What are the driving forces for the development of 6G? How will the enabling technologies of 6G differ from those in 5G? What kind of applications and interactions will they support which would not be supported by 5G? We address these questions by presenting a comprehensive study of the 6G vision and outlining seven of its disruptive technologies, i.e., mmWave communications, terahertz communications, optical wireless communications, programmable metasurfaces, drone-based communications, backscatter communications and tactile internet, as well as their potential applications. Then, by leveraging the state-of-the-art literature surveyed for each technology, we discuss the associated requirements, key challenges, and open research problems. These discussions are thereafter used to open up the horizon for future research directions.

A Prospective Look: Key Enabling Technologies, Applications and Open Research Topics in 6G Networks

This book focuses on optical wireless communications (OWC), an emerging technology with huge potential for the provision of pervasive and reliable next-generation communications networks. It shows how the development of novel and efficient wireless technologies can contribute to a range of transmission links essential for the heterogeneous networks of the future to support various communications services and traffic patterns with ever-increasing demands for higher data-transfer rates. The book starts with a chapter reviewing the OWC field, which explains different sub-technologies (visible-light, ultraviolet (UV) and infrared (IR) communications) and introduces the spectrum of application areas (indoor, vehicular, terrestrial, underwater, intersatellite, deep space, etc.). This provides readers with the necessary background information to understand the specialist material in the main body of the book, which is in four parts. The first of these deals with propagation modelling and channel characterization of OWC channels at different spectral bands and with different applications. The second starts by providing a unified information-theoretic treatment of OWC and then discusses advanced physical-layer methodologies (including, but not limited to: advanced coding, modulation diversity, cooperation and multi-carrier techniques) and the ultimate limitations imposed by practical constraints. On top of the physical layer come the upper-layer protocols and cross-layer designs that are the subject of the third part of the book. The last part of the book features a chapter-by-chapter assessment of selected OWC applications. Optical Wireless Communications is a valuable reference guide for academic researchers and practitioners concerned with the future development of the worlds communication networks. It succinctly but comprehensively presents the latest advances in the field.

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Carlo Capsoni

Papers

Optical Wireless Communications: An Emerging Technology