The standardization of fifth generation (5G) communications has been completed, and the 5G network should be commercially launched in 2020. As a result, the visioning and planning of 6G communications has begun, with an aim to provide communication services for the future demands of the 2030s. Here, we provide a vision for 6G that could serve as a research guide in the post-5G era. We suggest that human-centric mobile communications will still be the most important application of 6G and the 6G network should be human centric. Thus, high security, secrecy and privacy should be key features of 6G and should be given particular attention by the wireless research community. To support this vision, we provide a systematic framework in which potential application scenarios of 6G are anticipated and subdivided. We subsequently define key potential features of 6G and discuss the required communication technologies. We also explore the issues beyond communication technologies that could hamper research and deployment of 6G. This Perspective provides a vision for sixth generation (6G) communications in which human-centric mobile communications are considered the most important application, and high security, secrecy and privacy are its key features.

What should 6G be

The standardization of fifth generation (5G) communications has been completed, and the 5G network should be commercially launched in 2020. As a result, the visioning and planning of sixth generation (6G) communications has begun, with an aim to provide communication services for the future demands of the 2030s. Here we provide a vision for 6G that could serve a research guide in the post-5G era. We suggest that human-centric mobile communications will still be the most important application of 6G and the 6G network should be human centric. Thus, high security, secrecy, and privacy should be key features of 6G and should be given particular attention by the wireless research community. To support this vision, we provide a systematic framework in which potential application scenarios of 6G are anticipated and subdivided. We subsequently define key potential features of 6G and discuss the required communication technologies. We also explore the issues beyond communication technologies that could hamper research and deployment of 6G.

Seven models for computing underwater radiances and irradiances by numerical solution of the radiative transfer equation are compared. The models are applied to the solution of several problems drawn from optical oceanography. The problems include highly absorbing and highly scattering waters, scattering by molecules and by particulates, stratified water, atmospheric effects, surface-wave effects, bottom effects, and Raman scattering. The models provide consistent output, with errors (resulting from Monte Carlo statistical fluctuations) in computed irradiances that are seldom larger, and are usually smaller, than the experimental errors made in measuring irradiances when using current oceanographic instrumentation. Computed radiances display somewhat larger errors.

Comparison of numerical models for computing underwater light fields

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

Underwater wireless communications can be carried out through acoustic, radio frequency (RF), and optical waves. Compared to its bandwidth limited acoustic and RF counterparts, underwater optical wireless communications (UOWCs) can support higher data rates at low latency levels. However, the severe aquatic channel conditions (e.g., absorption, scattering, turbulence, etc.) pose great challenges for UOWCs and significantly reduce the attainable communication ranges, which necessitates efficient networking and localization solutions. Therefore, we provide a comprehensive survey on the challenges, advances, and prospects of underwater optical wireless networks (UOWNs) from a layer by layer perspective which includes: (1) Physical layer issues including propagation characteristics, channel modeling, and modulation techniques (2) Data link layer problems covering link configurations, link budgets, performance metrics, and multiple access schemes; (3) Network layer topics containing relaying techniques and potential routing algorithms; (4) Transport layer subjects such as connectivity, reliability, flow and congestion control; (5) Application layer goals, and (6) Localization and its impacts on UOWN layers. Finally, we outline the open research challenges and point out the prospective directions for underwater optical wireless communications, networking, and localization studies.

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Underwater Optical Wireless Communications, Networking, and Localization: A Survey

Underwater wireless communications refer to data transmission in unguided water environment through wireless carriers, i.e., radio-frequency (RF) wave, acoustic wave, and optical wave. In comparison to RF and acoustic counterparts, underwater optical wireless communication (UOWC) can provide a much higher transmission bandwidth and much higher data rate. Therefore, we focus, in this paper, on the UOWC that employs optical wave as the transmission carrier. In recent years, many potential applications of UOWC systems have been proposed for environmental monitoring, offshore exploration, disaster precaution, and military operations. However, UOWC systems also suffer from severe absorption and scattering introduced by underwater channels. In order to overcome these technical barriers, several new system design approaches, which are different from the conventional terrestrial free-space optical communication, have been explored in recent years. We provide a comprehensive and exhaustive survey of the state-of-the-art UOWC research in three aspects: 1) channel characterization; 2) modulation; and 3) coding techniques, together with the practical implementations of UOWC.

A Survey of Underwater Optical Wireless Communications

The Beckmann distribution has a wide range of applications in radio-frequency communications, free-space optical (FSO) communications, and underwater wireless optical communications (UWOC). However, the cumulative distribution function (cdf) of the Beckmann random variable (RV) does not have a closed-form expression, which makes it challenging to derive analytical solutions for the outage probability of systems involving Beckmann RVs. In this paper, we study the generalized Beckmann distribution, which includes the Beckmann, Rayleigh, Rician, Nakagami- $m$ , Hoyt, $\kappa $ - $\mu $ , $\eta $ - $\mu $ , single-sided Gaussian, and the Beaulieu-Xie distributions as special cases. Three approaches are proposed to estimate the cdf of the generalized Beckmann distribution, including closed-form upper and lower cdf bounds, single-fold integration based on the closed-form characteristic function, and a left-tail cdf approximation. We compare the three approaches in terms of the ranges of applications and the computation time complexity. Based on the new cdf estimation techniques, one can efficiently evaluate the outage probabilities of pointing-error-limited FSO systems, UWOC systems, and maximum-ratio combining over arbitrarily correlated generalized Beckmann channels.

On the Distribution Function of the Generalized Beckmann Random Variable and Its Applications in Communications

Beckmann distribution is a versatile mathematical model, which can be applied in performance analyses of radio frequency communications, free-space optical communications and underwater optical communications. However, the cumulative distribution function (CDF) of Beckmann distribution does not have a closed-form expression, which makes it challenging to derive closed-form outage probability expression of communications over channels involving Beckmann random variables. In this paper, we derive closed-form upper and lower CDF bounds of Beckmann distribution, and the bounds can be arbitrarily tight by properly choosing the parameters of the bounds. Compared to the numerical estimation of the double-fold integral expression of the Beckmann CDF, using the closed-form bounds to estimate the CDF is not only faster, but also has less space complexity. More importantly, the analytical CDF bounds explicitly quantify the largest possible discrepancy between the approximate CDF and the exact CDF, while the discrepancy of the numerical estimation is unknown.

Arbitrarily tight bounds on cumulative distribution function of Beckmann distribution

This paper presents a fast lock-in time clock frequency multiplier without using traditional clock generation circuits such as PLLs and DLLs. We propose a novel technique based on capacitive finite impulse response (FIR) filters to generate clock phases while reducing the input clock phase noise at the same time. A new delay line circuit is also proposed for improving power supply rejection. In addition, to improve the matching quality as well as the end-effects tolerance of the on-chip capacitors, a single-value series/parallel algorithm is proposed. Designed in a 0.18 μm digital CMOS process, with a 20 MHz input clock frequency, the multiplier achieves a multiplication factor of 5 with a lock-in time of less than 4 clock cycles. The input clock jitter is reduced from 7ns RMS to 153 ps RMS after frequency multiplication.

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Zhaoquan Zeng

Papers

A Survey of Underwater Optical Wireless Communications

On the Distribution Function of the Generalized Beckmann Random Variable and Its Applications in Communications

Arbitrarily tight bounds on cumulative distribution function of Beckmann distribution

A Fast Lock-In Time, Capacitive FIR-Filter-Based Clock Multiplier with Input Clock Jitter Reduction