Challenges and Opportunities in Optical Communication Networks

A special issue of Photonics (ISSN 2304-6732). This special issue belongs to the section "Optical Communication and Network".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 July 2027 | Viewed by 799

Editors


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Guest Editor
School of Engineering, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK
Interests: coherent optical communication systems; applications of WDM components for data communications; free space optical communication systems
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Guest Editor
Electrical Engineering Department, College of Engineering, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Al-Kharj 11942, Saudi Arabia
Interests: Lightwave Communication (LWC); optical energy harvesting; non-linear responsivity; simultaneous Lightwave Information and Power Transfer (SLIPT)

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue on “Challenges and Opportunities in Optical Communication Networks” will welcome original research and review articles exploring the latest developments, innovations, and challenges in optical communication systems. As demand for high-speed, high-capacity, and energy-efficient optical networks grows, researchers must address key issues related to network scalability, spectral efficiency, signal processing, and system security.

With the advancement of fiber-optic communication technologies, topics such as coherent optical transmission, photonic integration, nonlinear impairment mitigation, and artificial intelligence applications in optical networks have become critical areas of research. This Special Issue aims to highlight both the challenges and opportunities in modern optical communication networks and to provide insights into novel methodologies and future directions.

We invite contributions in, but not limited to, the following areas:

  • Next-Generation Optical Network Architectures;
  • Advanced Modulation and Multiplexing Techniques;
  • Photonic Integration and Optical Switching;
  • Machine Learning Applications in Optical Networks;
  • Security and Privacy in Optical Communication Systems;
  • High-Speed Optical Transmission and Network Scalability;
  • Nonlinear Compensation and Optical Signal Processing.

Dr. Fady El-Nahal
Dr. Dokhyl AlQahtani
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • optical network architectures
  • advanced modulation formats
  • photonic integration
  • machine learning in optical networks
  • network security
  • high-speed transmission
  • nonlinear signal processing

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

22 pages, 2210 KB  
Article
Short-Preamble DSP for Downstream Alamouti Coherent-Lite PON Using Gear-Shifted LMS Equalization
by Dokhyl AlQahtani and Fady I. El-Nahal
Photonics 2026, 13(8), 695; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics13080695 - 23 Jul 2026
Viewed by 330
Abstract
We present a short-preamble digital signal processing (DSP) architecture for downstream Alamouti coherent-lite passive optical network (PON) reception using a simplified optical network unit (ONU) receiver. A four-branch gear-shifted least-mean-square (LMS) equalizer uses a large step during quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) preamble training [...] Read more.
We present a short-preamble digital signal processing (DSP) architecture for downstream Alamouti coherent-lite passive optical network (PON) reception using a simplified optical network unit (ONU) receiver. A four-branch gear-shifted least-mean-square (LMS) equalizer uses a large step during quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) preamble training and a small step during decision-directed payload tracking. In 50 GBaud 16-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (16-QAM) simulations over 20 km single-mode fiber, a 2048-symbol preamble is the first cold-start point whose mean bit-error rate (BER) falls below the selected uncoded BER target of 102. A 20-realization-per-point sweep gives a sub-1 dB penalty for 2048 symbols and a mean offline mean-square-error (MSE) settling time below 100 ns, with low-gain locking events retained. However, frame-level reliability improves with longer training: in an indicative 20-frame Monte Carlo test, 13 of 20 frames met the BER target with a 2048-symbol preamble, compared with 17 of 20 using 4096 symbols. For repeated frames to the same ONU after initial acquisition, warm-start tap reuse allows frames 4–5 in the tested sequence to fall below target with 512-symbol preambles, corresponding to a later-frame nominal coded payload rate of 163 Gb/s instead of 123 Gb/s. The results quantify the preamble/reliability/payload-rate trade-off and indicate that downstream Alamouti coherent-lite reception can support short-training equalizer acquisition after preamble synchronization with one balanced detector and one analog-to-digital converter. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Challenges and Opportunities in Optical Communication Networks)
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