Researchers from the University of Cambridge’s LiFi Research and Development Centre (LRDC) are set to present their latest research findings at this year’s European Conference on Optical Communications (ECOC 2025), taking place in Copenhagen from 28 September to 2 October.
Acknowledged to be Europe’s premier gathering for optical communications, the annual conference, now in its 51st year, brings together pioneers and professionals from academia, research, and industry to advance the exchange of cutting-edge discoveries and future-oriented perspectives, alongside an accompanying exhibition which attracts over 6,000 attendees.
Representing the LRDC at ECOC 2025, to present research posters based on the following co-authored technical papers during the Scientific Programme, are:
Dr Rizwana Ahmad, Research Associate: Experimental Demonstration of 75 Gbps Free-Space IM-DD Transmission Employing Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM) Multiplexing – Free-space optics and optical wireless technologies plenary session, 1 October 2025. Using low-power, eye-safe vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) in combination with passive spiral phase plates (SPPs), researchers from the LRDC and Tampere University experimentally show a compact and cost-effective OAM-multiplexed optical wireless communication (OWC) link, with the system achieving an aggregate data rate of 75 Gbps over a 1-metre distance.
Dr Othman Younus, Research Associate: Real-Time Optical Wireless Architecture for Scalable Open RAN in 5G and Beyond Networks – Access, indoor and short-reach systems for data centres and mobile networks plenary session, 1 October 2025. This work by researchers at the LRDC and the Satellite Applications Catapult demonstrates a real-time, full-stack 5G radio access network (RAN), integrating optical wireless communication (OWC) links as fronthaul and backhaul, highlighting the role of this technology as a fibre-like, but wireless alternative for accelerating 5G and 6G deployment.
Yifan Huan, PhD Researcher: Interference-Resilient Optical Wireless Positioning via Machine Learning-Enhanced Subset Filtering – Free-space optics and optical wireless technologies plenary session, 30 September 2025. In this paper, LRDC and KTH Sweden researchers display a robust, machine learning-based optical wireless positioning system that achieves high accuracy in the presence of interference issues that hamper Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, by filtering out corrupt signals and fusing only reliable ones, enabling more dependable position estimation and dynamic interference rejection.
As well as highlighting key research achievements by the LRDC and partners, in the field of optical wireless telecommunications, while at the four day event, the LRDC team will also have the opportunity to explore other technology developments happening across Europe, network with peers from academia and industry, and share knowledge and experience with fellow participants.
Visit the ECOC 2025 website to find out more about the conference programme and the accompanying exhibition.