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New Trends in Next-Generation Optical Networks

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 1214

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
School of Engineering and Science, Tecnologico de Monterrey, Ave. Eugenio Garza Sada 2501, Monterrey 64849, Mexico
Interests: optical network

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Photonic integrated circuits provide an infrastructure for the implementation of a range of integrated photonic devices and circuits that have the potential to replace state-of-the-art commercial optical components. This Special Issue of Applied Sciences will provide new research on, and practical solutions to, CMOS-compatible photonic integrated devices (passive and active) used for communications in high-capacity optical networks. This Special Issue investigates how new photonic integrated technologies (e.g., CMOS higher-speed transceivers, CMOS-coherent systems, photonic integrated MUX and DMUX circuits, advanced digital signal processes, and new CMOS-compatible optoelectronic components) and new network-layer approaches may drive the medium–long-term evolution of optical networks for communication. This Special Issue covers a large scope of research in optical networking and communications, and solicits contributions in, but not limited to, the following topics in relation to photonic integrated CMOS-compatible systems:

  • Photonic higher-speed transceivers;
  • Lasers and amplifiers;
  • Coherent systems;
  • Advanced digital signal processing;
  • Compatible optical switching, devices, and architectures;
  • The design and performance evaluation of optical network components;
  • Energy-efficient optical networks and systems;
  • Data center networks;
  • Optical access networks and FTTx;
  • Optical packet, burst, and flow switching;
  • Failure monitoring and localization;
  • Protection and restoration in optical networks;
  • Elastic optical networks;
  • Optical network security;
  • Support to grid and cloud computing;
  • Radio-over-fiber technology;
  • The convergence of optical and wireless networks.

Prof. Dr. Gerardo Antonio Castañón-Avila
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • photonic integrated circuits
  • CMOS photonics
  • coherent optics
  • quantum networking
  • photonic interconnects
  • bandwidth scalability

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

33 pages, 5209 KiB  
Review
Integrated Photonics for IoT, RoF, and Distributed Fog–Cloud Computing: A Comprehensive Review
by Gerardo Antonio Castañón Ávila, Walter Cerroni and Ana Maria Sarmiento-Moncada
Appl. Sci. 2025, 15(13), 7494; https://doi.org/10.3390/app15137494 - 3 Jul 2025
Viewed by 712
Abstract
Integrated photonics is a transformative technology for enhancing communication and computation in Cloud and Fog computing networks. Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) enable significant improvements in data-processing speed, energy-efficiency, scalability, and latency. In Cloud infrastructures, PICs support high-speed optical interconnects, energy-efficient switching, and compact [...] Read more.
Integrated photonics is a transformative technology for enhancing communication and computation in Cloud and Fog computing networks. Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) enable significant improvements in data-processing speed, energy-efficiency, scalability, and latency. In Cloud infrastructures, PICs support high-speed optical interconnects, energy-efficient switching, and compact wavelength division multiplexing (WDM), addressing growing data demands. Fog computing, with its edge-focused processing and analytics, benefits from the compactness and low latency of integrated photonics for real-time signal processing, sensing, and secure data transmission near IoT devices. PICs also facilitate the low-loss, high-speed modulation, transmission, and detection of RF signals in scalable Radio-over-Fiber (RoF) links, enabling seamless IoT integration with Cloud and Fog networks. This results in centralized processing, reduced latency, and efficient bandwidth use across distributed infrastructures. Overall, integrating photonic technologies into RoF, Fog and Cloud computing networks paves the way for ultra-efficient, flexible, and scalable next-generation network architectures capable of supporting diverse real-time and high-bandwidth applications. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the current state and emerging trends in integrated photonics for IoT sensors, RoF, Fog and Cloud computing systems. It also outlines open research opportunities in photonic devices and system-level integration, aimed at advancing performance, energy-efficiency, and scalability in next-generation distributed computing networks. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Trends in Next-Generation Optical Networks)
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