Novel Insights into Optical Networks, Including Their Role in the 6G Era
A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Optics and Lasers".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 August 2025 | Viewed by 810
Special Issue Editors
Interests: telecommunications (physical layer); optical communications; optical waveguides; electromagnetic propagation
Interests: 6G networks; numerical simulation; network optimization; applications of machine learning; derivation of 6G system requirements
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Optical networks have come a long way since the deployment of the first wavelength–division–multiplexing (WDM) links in the second half of the 1990s. Since then, we have seen the development of all-optical reconfigurable networks in which switching and routing can be implemented in the optical domain by means of modules such as reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexers (ROADMs) and reconfigurable optical cross-connects (ROXCs).
On the other hand, 6G will support even more demanding mobile use case categories, as compared to 5G, and for this purpose, a number of innovations at component, system, and control levels need to be introduced. As a consequence, further progress is expected in various domains, encompassing the development of fixed Internet Protocol/optical transport network (known as x-haul) which interlinks the radio access network (RAN), mobile core network (CN), and the Internet. This network will serve as the foundation for 6G since it facilitates the transmission of combined user traffic and its global circulation.
Authors are invited to submit manuscripts within the scope of this Special Issue, which includes, but is not limited to, the following:
- Enabling technologies regarding modules, devices, and subsystems for optical networking;
- All-optical switching and networking for core, metro, access, and data center applications;
- Hybrid networks;
- 6G networks and optical communication systems;
- Network-wide modeling and optimization methods;
- AI and network automation;
- Integration of optical and wireless networks;
- Low-cost and low-power consumption transceivers.
Prof. Dr. Gerasimos Pagiatakis
Dr. Dimitris Uzunidis
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- optical communications
- optical networks
- 6G
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