Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, we have witnessed increased interest in ocean exploration due to the foreseeable depletion of several oceanic resources and rapid global climate changes. Underwater wireless optical communication (UWOC), featuring large bandwidth, small delay and strong anti-interference ability, has proven its value in various applications, such as data and real-time video transmission, telemetry, disaster prevention, environmental surveillance, offshore exploration, and oceanographic studies, etc. However, underwater light attenuation, scattering and turbulence can cause spatial, temporal, polarization, and phase distortion in the emitted optical signals, which substantially restricts the transmission performances. To achieve long-reach, efficient, secure, and high-speed UOWC, researchers have focused on developing new communication mechanisms, novel transceivers, and new signal processing algorithms.

This Special Issue aims to provide a platform for the recent advances and innovations in UOWC. You are cordially invited to submit original research articles or perspective reviews, including the recent trends and developments regarding the current state-of-the-art UOWC. The scope of this Special Issue includes, but is not limited to, the following topics:

• New advances and challenges of UOWC;
• Emerging UOWC technologies;
• Coding, detection, and modulation schemes for UOWC;
• Non-orthogonal multiple access techniques for UOWC;
• Experiments, trials, and testbeds for UOWC;
• Fiber-wireless communication systems;
• Hybrid underwater optical wireless networks;
• Single-photon detector-based communication;
• Detector sensors, high-efficiency photodetectors for UOWC systems;
• Optical light sources for UOWC systems;
• Characterization of aquatic optical channels;
• Machine-learning-based algorithms for UOWC;
• UOWC positioning and localization;
• Scattering and oceanic turbulence mitigation techniques;

Oceanic turbulence modeling and simulation.

Prof. Dr. Jing Xu
Dr. Yanlong Li
Prof. Dr. Yang Qiu
Guest Editors

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• underwater optical wireless communication
• underwater visible light communication
• optical communication
• optical communication network