FSO and MmWave Technologies for 5G Mobile Networks: A Survey

The fifth generation (or 5G) has the potential to completely change wireless communications, providing massive capacity and performance increases. There are several important factors that make millimeter-wave (or mmWave) transmission systems and data transmission through free-space optical (or FSO) links an important part of the 5G revolution to achieve this transformation. FSO has risen to prominence due to its extremely high bandwidth, its inherent transmission security, and its low power consumption with an unlicensed optical wavelength, although it is strongly influenced by atmospheric fog and turbulence. Furthermore, mmWave has been selected because of the increased bandwidth available in this range of the spectrum. The present paper gives a brief overview of FSO and mmWave technology in 5G. Furthermore, some examples of 5G hybrid communication systems that have been regarded in earlier contributions have also been discussed.