Special Issue on Light Communications: Latest Advances and Prospects

The wireless information carrier shift from the radio frequencies to optical frequencies has been studied in increasing detail since the invention of the laser in the 1960s. With the advent of optical fiber communications and their global use, we have seen a growing interest in the field of optical wireless communications (OWC) for front- and back-haul access networks and beyond as part of fifth-generation (5G) wireless networks. OWC has found niche applications in a wide range of systems, from short-range indoor to long-range outdoor and very long deep space and inter-satellite links. New components, such as visible light-emitting sources, image sensors, advanced signal processing techniques, multi-input multi-output, and machine learning are pushing the OWC technology into new application areas such as vehicular communications, smart environments, medical, manufacturing, etc., as part of 5G wireless networks and the emerging 6G networks and beyond.

This Special Issue was put together with the goal of bringing together the latest research and development in wireless light communications. A total of 53 submissions were received, and 24 were selected for publication in this Special Issue. The published works present novel results mainly on outdoor and indoor applications of light communications, while a few papers also address broader areas. We briefly present these works in the following sections.