Our connectivity challenge, led by University College London (UCL), tackles the core task of demonstrating how different connectivity techniques can be integrated to provide end to end connectivity.

Communications networks consist of a ‘backbone’ of optical fibres, with wireless connectivity increasingly being used to connect devices to this network. As fibre connections move ever closer to the user, wireless links will become shorter, offering higher capacity.  

C1 focuses on new technologies that can use new parts of the RF, THz and Optical Spectrum to provide both wired and wireless connectivity. Our goal is to combine these in an energy efficient manner, increase the available spectrum in both wired and wireless domains and alleviate the capacity limits caused by the so-called ‘Spectrum Crunch’.

Work includes;

  • ‘Engineering’ the propagation environment using intelligent surfaces
  • Optimising access techniques
  • Developing THz and optical wireless technologies for connectivity
  • New wavelengths and techniques for optical fibre transmission
  • Optical information processing for telecommunications

This is informed by modelling and measurement from C0, and results provide the input to the Adaptivity and Security Challenges.


 

Associated Publications
21 August 2025 | Connectivity
DRL-Assisted QoT-Aware Service Provisioning in Multi-Band Elastic Optical Networks
Journal of Lightwave Technology ( Early Access )
13 June 2025 | Connectivity
Y Low et al.,"Linearization of Directly Modulated Lasers for Enhanced Optical Wireless Communication
IEEE Photonics Technology Letters
22 May 2025 | Connectivity
S Yang et al.,"Improved Quantization Noise Suppression for Low-order Sigma-delta over Fiber"
2025 IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications Workshops ((INFOCOM WKSHPS 2025)
3 April 2025 | Connectivity
R Wang et al., "A UK Nationwide Heterogeneous Quantum Network" - postdeadline
2025 Optical Fiber Communications conference (OFC 2025)
22 May 2025 | Connectivity
R, Chen et al., AI-Driven Equalization for Compressive Optical Fronthaul in Next-generation Radio Access Network
2024 European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC 2024)
17 March 2025 | Connectivity
T Li et al., "Enabling Low-Cost Fronthaul Transmission with 4Gbps VCSEL-APD Free Space Optic Link,"
2024 European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC 2024)
3 February 2025 | Connectivity
DRL-based Dolph-Tschebyscheff Beamforming in Downlink Transmission for Mobile Users
IEEE Infocom 2025 Workshop (submitted)
29 October 2024 | Connectivity
B. Sun et al. "Demonstration of Reconfigurable Microring-Based Silicon Optical Switch for Optical Fronthaul."
2024 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO 2024)
21 March 2024 | Connectivity
H, Guo et al., "Deep Learning Based Modulation Classification in Radio Access Network."
2023 IEEE Globecom Workshops (GC Wkshps 2023)
29 January 2025 | Connectivity
Beyond Diagonal Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces in Wideband OFDM Communications: Circuit-Based Modeling and Optimization
IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications.
15 January 2025 | Connectivity
Near-Field Localization with Antenna Arrays in the Presence of Direction-Dependent Mutual Coupling
IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology
28 November 2024 | Connectivity
Exact Statistics and Tight Approximations for RIS-Assisted Communications in Generalized Fading Environments
2024 IEEE 100th Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC2024-Fall)
28 November 2024 | Connectivity
LoRa Radio Frequency Fingerprinting Identification Using a Hybrid Quantum-Classical Neural Network
2024 IEEE 100th Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC2024-Fall)
31 October 2024 | Connectivity
Broadband wavelength conversion in Si-rich silicon nitride waveguides based on intermodal four-wave mixing
EPJ Web Conf.,
29 October 2024 | Connectivity
Hybrid Analog and Digital RF Fronthaul Transmission over Low Cost VCSEL-APD based Free Space Optics link
CLEO 2024
15 October 2024 | Connectivity
Rate-Splitting Multiple Access for Overloaded Multi-Group Multicast: A First Experimental Study
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON BROADCASTING
2 October 2024 | Connectivity
Exploiting Active STAR-RIS to enable URLLC in Digitally-Twinned Internet-of-Things Networks
IEEE Transactions on Communications
30 September 2024 | Connectivity
A Polarization Insensitive and Angularly Stable Reconfigurable Unit Cell for Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces
2024 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and INC/USNC?URSI Radio Science Meeting (AP-S/INC-USNC-URSI)
24 September 2024 | Connectivity
Near-field localization with an exact propagation model in presence of mutual coupling
2024 IEEE 99th Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC2024-Spring)
5 September 2024 | Connectivity
Hybrid OTFS/OFDM design in massive MIMO
IEEE Transactions on Communications
22 August 2024 | Connectivity
Silicon nitride for enhanced integrated photonics
IEEE 24th International Conference on Nanotechnology (NANO),
15 July 2024 | Connectivity
Flexible Generation of Optically-Carried Sub-THz Beat Notes Stabilized Through an Integrated SiN Frequency Locker
Ieee Photonics Technology Letters
15 July 2024 | Connectivity
Frequency stabilization of C-band semiconductor lasers through a SiN photonic integrated circuit
Photonics Research
11 July 2024 | Connectivity
L- to U-Band Wavelength Conversion of QPSK Signals Using Intermodal Four-Wave Mixing
Ieee Photonics Technology Letters
3 July 2024 | Connectivity
Electromagnetic informed data model considerations for near-field DOA and range estimates
Scientific Reports
26 June 2024 | Connectivity
A Universal Framework for Multiport Network | Analysis of Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces
IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications.
26 June 2024 | Connectivity
Power Over Fiber and Analog Radio Over Fiber Simultaneous Transmission Over Long Distance in Single Mode, Multicore, and Hollow Core Fibers
Laser & Photonics Reviews
17 June 2024 | Connectivity
Subwavelength and broadband on-chip mode splitting with shifted junctions
Optics Express
25 April 2024 | Connectivity
α-μ, κ-μ, and η-μ Mixed Products: Exact and Simple-Approximate Solutions, and Practical and RIS Applications
IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology
12 April 2024 | Connectivity
Coherent O-band WDM transmission of DP-16QAM over a 50-km BDFA-amplified link
Optics Express
21 March 2024 | Connectivity
Deep Learning Based Modulation Classification in Radio Access Network
2023 IEEE Globecom Workshops (GC Wkshps)
29 February 2024 | Connectivity
Fully integrated and broadband Si-rich silicon nitride wavelength converter based on Bragg scattering intermodal four-wave mixing
Photonics Research
27 February 2024 | Connectivity
Mechanical dicing of optical quality facets and waveguides in a silicon nitride platform
Electronics Letters
24 January 2024 | Connectivity
Fabrication of 1 x N integrated power splitters with arbitrary power ratio for single and multimode photonics
Nanophotonics
23 October 2023 | Connectivity
Optical OTFS Is Capable Of Improving the Bandwidth, Power and Energy-Efficiency of Optical OFDM
IEEE Transactions on Communications
22 September 2023 | Connectivity
Multichannel Nonlinear Equalization in Coherent WDM Systems Based on Bi-Directional Recurrent Neural Networks
Journal of Lightwave Technology
19 May 2023 | Connectivity
Next Generation Wireless Fronthaul using VCSEL-based Free Space Optics
OFC 2023