Recent Advances and Future Perspectives in Optical Wireless Communication, Free Space Optical Communication and Sensing for 6G

Optical wireless communication (OWC) is an emerging area where research and development are growing worldwide. The radio-frequency (RF) spectral resource in traditional communication band has been exhausted, and frequency allocation will be a big issue, particularly for the future 6G networks. The non-terrestrial-networks (NTN) in 6G introduce new applications, such as automatic logistics with drones, satellite communication, underwater communication, etc, making OWC inevitable for such ultra-broadband and secure wireless transmissions. This tutorial covers the recent advances and future perspectives in OWC, free-space-optical (FSO) communication and sensing, from devices to applications.