The Emerging Optical Wireless Commun. For Future Wireless Commun. Networks : Keynote Talk #2

Artificial general lighting sources are currently evolving through the traditional fluorescent and incandescent sources to the modern energy saving light bulbs and now white light emitting diodes (LEDs). The introduction of solid state LED lighting source has attracted the attention of communications engineer’s worldwide, enabling the achievement of the dual functionality of room illumination whilst simultaneously transmitting wireless data via visible light communication (VLC), or optical wireless communications (OWC) in general, in optical spectrum regime. Although the existing wireless networks are primely dominated by radio-based technology, the emerging OWC will play increasingly important role in future wireless communications landscape. It is anticipated that both spectrum regimes, radio and optical, will eventually contribute equally for the next network generation, especially in nanocell and picocell network structures. This talk will outline the growth of optical wireless communications including VLC, and present the challenges and roadmap of the technology for the future generation of wireless networks..