Single-photon counting receivers for optical wireless communications in future 6G networks

Shenjie Huang*, Danial Chitnis, Cheng Chen, Harald Haas, Mohammad Ali Khalighi, Robert K. Henderson, Majid Safari

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

Optical wireless communication (OWC) offers several complementary advantages to radio-frequency wireless networks such as its massive available spectrum. Hence, it is widely anticipated that OWC will assume a pivotal role in the forth-coming sixth generation wireless communication networks. Although significant progress has been achieved in OWC over the past decades, the outage induced by occasionally low received optical power continues to pose a key limiting factor for its deployment. In this work, we discuss the potential role of single-photon counting (SPC) receivers as a promising solution to overcome this limitation. We present an overview of the applications of SPC-based OWC systems in 6G networks, introduce their major performance-limiting factors, propose a performance-enhancement frame-work to tackle these issues, and identify critical areas of open problems for future research.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)54-60
Number of pages7
JournalIEEE Communications Magazine
Volume62
Issue number3
Early online date4 Dec 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Mar 2024

Keywords

  • Single-photon avalanche diodes
  • 6G mobile communication
  • detectors
  • photonics
  • optical receivers
  • high-speed optical techniques
  • sensitivity
  • optical fiber communication
  • wireless communication
  • radio frequency
  • wireless networks

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