Based on visible light communication technology which has been a research hotspot in the field of communication, this paper reviews the background of visible light communication, illustrates the basic system architecture and explores the research progress of visible light communication around five frontier directions: material chips, high-speed systems, multiplexing networks, underwater visible light communication and machine learning. The challenges faced by visible light communication are analyzed. Finally, looking forward to the prospect of visible light communication: in the intelligent era of future, visible light communication will become an indispensable part of communication networks with its advantages of high-speed transmission, and cooperate with other communication technologies to complement human life.