Preservation and accessibility of cultural heritage have become essential with the rapid advancements of globalization and modernization endeavors constantly threatening historical artifacts and sites across the world. The advent of the metaverse, with its immersive and interactive capabilities, presents a novel approach to safeguarding and promoting cultural heritage. The current study aims to explore the potential of metaverse applications in digitalizing cultural heritage, encompassing virtual reconstructions, educational outreach, global accessibility, and sustainability. It conducts a systematic literature review using PRISMA guidelines to collect, screen, and evaluate existing research enquiries into investigating current practices and technologies in the digitalization of heritage preservation. The study also conducts case study research to investigate the challenges and opportunities associated with the virtual preservation of tangible and intangible cultural assets, including issues of authenticity, representation, and sustainability. Furthermore, it evaluates the impact of metaverse applications on public engagement and cultural education. The findings provide valuable insights into developing innovative strategies for preserving cultural heritage in the digital age while highlighting best practices and guidelines for optimizing metaverse applications in cultural heritage preservation.

Complementing wireless radio networks with free-space optics (FSO) achieves high data rates by modulating radio subcarriers over an optical carrier without expensive optical fiber cabling, enabling a pervasive platform for reaching underserved areas. In this paper, we review the main features of FSO for terrestrial and inter-satellite communications. Simulations of 1 Gbps data transmission through FSO links in both terrestrial and inter-satellite communications have been investigated to highlight potential atmospheric challenges in FSO.

Inter-satellite communication is a revolutionary technique used to establish communication between satellites in space. One of the major challenges in inter-satellite link is transmitting pointing errors, which causes turbulences in the link. This work is focussed on successful transmission of 120 Gbps high-speed data over 1,000 km by adopting hybrid wavelength division multiplexing scheme and polarization interleaving scheme under the influence of transmitting pointing error.