Recent Advances in Optical Wireless Communication Systems and Networks

Dear Colleagues,

Optical wireless communication (OWC) represents a promising solution for future high-speed wireless access. This has been stimulating a growing interest in a range of optical wireless communications technologies, including indoor OWC, underwater OWC, and optical wireless-based satellite communications.

While exciting and tremendous achievements have been reported in this research field in recent years, sustained efforts are still needed to address some remaining challenges. These include, for example, the bandwidth limitation (in particular, that of visible light communications) and networking for optical wireless systems, as well as the inherent vulnerability to environmental factors (e.g., atmosphere turbulence, fog, underwater air bubbles, etc.).

In this context, the purpose of this Special Issue is to report on the latest advances in optical wireless communications, aiming to provide an overview of the state of the art of this research field. We are pleased to invite you to submit your latest research findings to this Special Issue, which welcomes both original research articles and reviews. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Free-space optical communications;
• Optical wireless-based satellite communications;
• High-speed optical wireless transmission demonstrations;
• Underwater OWC;
• Optical wireless-enabled intelligent transport systems;
• Optical camera communications;
• Visible light communications;
• Simultaneous energy harvesting and OWC;
• Optical wireless networks;
• Advanced signal processing techniques for OWC;
• Integrated sensing and communication in 6G;
• Radio over fiber;
• Multiple access techniques for optical wireless systems;
• Optical and wireless network convergence and mobile x-haul;
• Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces for OWC;
• Optical channel models and characteristics.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Yang Hong
Dr. Jin Shi
Dr. Zhouyi Hu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Photonics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• optical wireless communications
• visible light communications
• optical wireless networks
• underwater optical wireless transmission
• optical camera communications