Top 30 Li-Fi Applications (Updated List Including Potential Applications)

Table of Contents

Top 30 Li-Fi Applications (Updated List Including Potential Applications)

Li-Fi is known as a light communication system capable of transmitting data at high speeds over the visible light, ultraviolet, and infrared spectrums. Before going deeply into the applications of Li-Fi, let us read about some interesting statistics and useful information about Li-Fi technology.

Global Digital Population

According to a recent Statista report, they are almost 4.66 billion active internet users as of October 2020, encompassing 59 per cent of the global population. Also, they are 4.28 billion unique mobile internet users, 4.14 billion active social media users and around 4.08 billion active mobile internet users.  Mobile has now become the most significant channel for internet access worldwide as mobile internet users account for 91 per cent of total internet users.

Worldwide digital population as of October 2020 - Credit to Statista

Li-Fi Market

Some Global Li-Fi Market reports forecast that the Li-Fi market could be valued at $200 billion by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 31.5% from 2020 to 2025 (Compound annual growth rate is the rate of return that would be required for an investment to grow from its beginning balance to its ending balance, assuming the profits were reinvested at the end of each year of the investment's lifespan). The market growth is attributed to factors such as growing demand for indoor networking in the commercial sector, increasing implementation of Li-Fi in healthcare and education sectors, others.

According to a Global Market Insights' report, Li-Fi market value is expected to reach £59.2 billion by 2023. The Li-Fi market is estimated to exhibit high growth potential during the forecast period owing to technological advancements and increasing demand for high-speed data communication.

The demand for highly secure and high-speed data communication is increasing worldwide and therefore various Industries such as healthcare, consumer electronics, defence, and commercial sector create a strong demand for Li-Fi technology for efficient industrial operations in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The segmentation of the Li-Fi market is split into LEDs, Optical Sensing, Photo-detectors, Microcontrollers and others on the basis of component. The market for LEDs is expected to hold the highest market share during the forecast period 2020-2025. This growth can be linked to increased LED (Light Emitting Diodes) deployments at commercial establishments and industries. The ability of an LED to modulate swiftly on and off is key to Li-Fi working. These modulation and demodulation schemes transition data from one location to another. Li-Fi operates by taking and inserting data content into an SSL (Solid State Logic) driver by streaming it. This SSL driver can run a string of high speed LED lamps, turning them on and off. As the LED lamps turn on and off and strobe faster than the eye can see, it illuminates the context area. Their demand in Li-Fi systems is proliferating with several advantages of LEDs such as durability, low power consumption, and high energy output. These advantages help in adopting LEDs in the form of arrays for Li-Fi system infrastructure, supporting the growth of the market.

Li-Fi technology is much cheaper and more environmentally friendly than Wi-Fi installation. In many popular applications, Li-Fi technology has great potential such as location-based services, mobile connectivity, smart lighting and hazardous environments.

How does Li-Fi work?

Li-Fi is a high speed, bidirectional, and fully networked wireless communication of data using light.

When an electrical current goes through to a LED light bulb, a stream of light (photons) emits from the lamp. LED bulbs are semiconductor devices, which means that the brightness of the light flowing through them can change at extremely high speeds. The signal is sent by modulating the light at different rates. The signal can then be received by a detector that interprets the changes in light intensity (the signal) as data. Also when the LED is ON, you transmit a digital 1, and when it is OFF, you transmit a 0.

Fig 1. pureLiFi - How Li-Fi work?

Fig 2. pureLiFi - How Li-Fi work?

Fig 3. pureLiFi - How Li-Fi work?

The human eye can not see the intense modulation taking place. With this technique, data can be transmitted from a LED light bulb and back at high speeds. This is how Li-Fi works in a pureLiFi kit.

Li-Fi not only works through the visible light spectrum, but it can also work through the infrared spectrum. An example of this is the LiFiMax 100 mega made by Oledcomm.

Li-Fi Applications

There is an increasing variety of Li-Fi applications. Here is an updated list of Li-Fi applications:

1. Li-Fi and Live Streaming

According to a Go-Globe report, 82% of consumers prefer to watch live videos from a brand than posts, 80% of brand audience prefer to watch live video from a brand than read a blog and live videos are watched three times longer than videos that are not live anymore. Because of the rapid rates Li-Fi can reach, it can be made available in big shopping malls, sports stadium, street lights, aeroplanes, trains including underground, train stations, airports and hence. This allows any user to consume rich content media like videos as well as live streaming from their smartphones or other mobile devices nearly anywhere they are like in stadiums, trains and planes provided they are exposed to Li-Fi enabled LEDs or Li-Fi enabled devices. Li-Fi live streaming can also be beneficial for the following type of events:

-Conferences

-Seminars

-Meetings

-Team Building events

-Trade shows

-Business dinners

-Press conferences

-Networking events

-Opening Ceremonies

-Product launches

-Theme parties

-Award ceremonies

-Weddings

-Funerals

-Birthday parties

-Concerts

Li-Fi live streaming has a lot of potentials in many years to come. However, many devices such as smartphones, laptops, monitor screens, cameras lack of Li-Fi enabled components embedded in them. Many tests run by Li Fi Tech have found out that devices joined through a Li-Fi network rather than the use of Wi-Fi networks, received faster internet connection. This is still at the research and testing phase.

2. Li-Fi in Hospitals

Because of the non-interference of Li-Fi with radiofrequency devices, Li-Fi can be safely used in many hospital applications. For example, in corridors, waiting rooms, patient rooms and operating theatres, Li-Fi technology will allow a light communication network, which will remove electromagnetic interference issues from smartphones and the use of Wi-Fi in hospitals. Li-Fi can be used for real-time monitoring and report of patient movement and vital signs without the need for wires.

Li-Fi can also enable patients on their beds to connect to internet news, emails, video games and social media platforms through their smartphones. This helps them pass the time during their stay. For medical workers, Li-Fi will enable the tracking and relocation of the positions of critical medical devices, especially those regularly shared by different departments. Check the below diagram for a summary of the benefits of Li-Fi in hospitals.

Li-Fi Uses at Emergency Hospital Centre of Perpignan

Credit to Allodocteurs

Oledcomm, one of the leading Li-Fi companies in the world, installed Li-Fi enabled led lights at the Emergency Hospital Centre of Perpignan in 2014. The hospital became the first worldwide hospital with Li-Fi spots in Perpignan. When a patient is admitted to the department and Dr Jean-Marie Bonnec, Emergency Department Head of Perpignan, wants to consult his medical file, he connects to a computer and the Internet. But the wireless connection is made without going through the Wi-Fi network. The wireless connection is made through a Li-Fi system.

Dr Jean-Marie Bonnec stated: " To be mobile between rooms, we are connected in Li-Fi, it is a connection without waves using light waves, thanks to a luminous reception box which will hang the signal on luminous relay terminals which are in the hallway, ".

Li-Fi connection limits the exposure of patients and medical personnel to radio waves.

The Li-Fi technology uses LED light modulated to transmit information to a dedicated receiver that decodes the data on the computer, tablet or smartphone. The transmitter/receiver intercepts the flicker emitted by the bulb and imperceptible to the naked eye.

" We use a conventional box, we get the Internet through the telephone network, the Wi-Fi is off and we send the entire Internet connection through the electricity network to each lamp. The lamp will start to flash more than ten million times a second to transmit a video via Li-Fi, for example, to the laptop. Of course, ten million times, the human eye is unable to see these flickers, but the computer, smartphones, tablets they are capable, " said Suat Topsu, founder of a start-up that wants to meet the technical challenge of" Light Fidelity ".

Impressed by the concept of Li-Fi technology, the IT manager of the Perpignan hospital decided to gradually replace Wi-Fi with Li-Fi.

""In the area where we installed the Li-Fi, we measure 269 millivolts per meter of electromagnetic waves, which is well below the WHO recommendations of 600 millivolts per meter. We still have Wi-Fi, we measure 3 volts per meter, which is ten times higher than we had done in the area equipped with Li-Fi. Our goal is to suppress the waves technologies that allow us to improve the care and health of our users and also our staff because it remains 24/7 within the hospital", according to Vincent Templier, head of the IT department.

Li-Fi technology can also enable robots to deliver equipment and drugs to the departmental wards and different departments in the hospital.

Delivery Robots at St. Elizabeth Healthcare's hospital

A talking robot named Tug has begun making rounds at St. Elizabeth Healthcare's hospital in Fort Thomas, where it delivers medicine from the pharmacy to nursing stations.

John Giordullo, system director of pharmacy for St. Elizabeth, stated that "The Tug robot allows our pharmacy staff to focus squarely on the clinical and patient-centred parts of their jobs rather than the task of delivering medications through the hospital,"

A software system tracks medication delivery from the pharmacy.

"Tug has been very reliable, predictable and easy to use," said Benita Utz, vice president of nursing for the Fort Thomas hospital. "It has made our jobs as nurses more efficient and has eliminated calls to the pharmacy looking for medication deliveries."

Using a computer, a nurse can see precisely where Tug is at any time.

With the use of Li-Fi, delivery robots can use it to open doors and to call elevators, enabling him to reach all of the patient units in the hospital.

A map of the facility was loaded into the robot's internal computer, enabling Tug to navigate on his own. GPS isn't needed. The robot calculates its location through an odometry algorithm. Sensors, including a laser, detect known and unexpected obstacles, such as people in hallways.

To the amusement of visitors and staff, the robot has raised eyebrows. Powered by an electric motor, the robot rolls along on wheels. It yields to visitors and staff.

When he encounters people, “he announces himself,” Guy Karrick, a spokesman for St. Elizabeth, said. “He’s got a computer-activated voice, the same as if you turn your GPS on in your car.”

The robot also speaks in other circumstances. “Approaching elevator, please stand aside,” Tug says. “Waiting for doors to open.”

Li-Fi based voice-controlled robots are slowly introduced in industries. These robots are used to avoid any accidents that occurred because of workers mistakes. The voice-controlled robot is one of them. By using this robot, workers can control the movements of the robot. The instructions of this operator are transmitted toward robot through Li-Fi technology as such surgical robots can also be implemented.

Li-Fi Motol University Hospital

From a recent article from the IEEE Spectrum, a team of researchers installed multiple Li-Fi transmitters and receivers in a neurosurgery operating room at Motol University Hospital in Prague. In a series of tests, the Li-Fi system managed to transfer data quickly and without complete signal loss. Data transmission rates of up to 600 megabits per second were achieved.

Prior to this work, “there was no experimental study happening in a medical scenario for Li-Fi,” stated Sreelal Maravanchery Mana, a lead author and researcher at HHI. “This is the first time we are doing realistic measurements in a medical environment.”

Li-Fi is not perfect wireless communication technology. While it doesn’t face interference from other medical devices, it can still be interrupted. Unlike Wi-Fi’s radio frequencies, which can go through walls, optical light is easily blocked by humans or objects. To get around this issue, the HHI researchers used four transmitters and six receivers around the operating room, for a total of 24 channels between transmitters and receivers.

“Even if 23 of those channels are blocked, you still have one and you can have a very robust communication,” says Dominic Schulz, a researcher at HHI. During an operation, it’s possible doctors or nurses could block some of the links between transmitters and receivers by walking between them. The team plans to continue testing different Li-Fi setups in hospitals, and eventually use the technology to transmit data to medical devices being used during actual surgery.

3. Li-Fi in Pharmacies and the Pharmaceutical Industry

In hospital pharmacies and specifically in aseptic manufacturing sites, Li-Fi could be used by pharmacists for receiving and screening electronically approved prescriptions directly in the unit. Li-Fi can be used for real-time tracking of prescribed aseptic drugs like cytotoxic drugs, Parenteral drugs and centralised intravenous additive services (CIVAS) in the unit and nurses and other healthcare professionals from the ward can check the status without the need of calling or going directly to the aseptic unit.

Automation, including automated inspection and packaging, is becoming an increasingly important part of pharmaceutical manufacturing. The many benefits of automation include efficiency, saving workers from hazardous environments or repetitive tasks, reducing training overhead, eliminating human error, increasing repeatability and reproducibility, and in cleanrooms, removing the potential for human contamination.

Through Li-Fi, the access and sharing of patient records will be done in a convenient, faster and very secure manner.  For pharmacy dispensaries, Li-Fi could be used by patients to check the real-time status of the prescriptions on their smartphones or pharmacy terminals while waiting to collect their scripts. 

Li-Fi can enable data loggers to remotely monitor an environment with periodic data uploads using Li-Fi network without the need of being collected to a PC. Through the Li-Fi system, the data can be collected from any Li-Fi enabled device.

In 2001, the Audit Commission's "Spoonful of sugar" report advocated the use of automation to transform pharmacy services and, since then, many UK hospitals installed dispensary robots. Pharmacy robots have been demonstrated to reduce the incidence of dispensing errors, improve the speed and efficiency of the dispensing process, and optimise the use of space in the pharmacy.

In the UK, the use of robots use in community pharmacies is still limited. However, robots have the potential to handle high volumes of dispensing in community pharmacies or dispensing "hubs", and to release pharmacists to develop and deliver patient-centred services. Li-Fi can enable robots in pharmacies to communicate with staff and other IT systems, delivery of drugs, stock pilling shelves and many more.

As newer, smaller and more efficient machines become available, robot use in all sectors of pharmacy is likely to increase. In addition to that, automated methadone dispensing machines (e.g., Methameasure, Methadose) offer accuracy and efficiency in the laborious methadone dispensing process, and their use will likely increase, too, especially in pharmacies with a high volume of methadone dispensing. Li-Fi will be on the one of the wireless communication technologies that will enable robots to perform their tasks effectively and communicate with other systems and robots.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is currently impacting many industries, including the pharmaceutical industry. Pharmaceutical production processes have to be well-documented to establish and maintain consistent regulatory compliance.

Li-Fi technology can enable pharma IoT connected devices to continuously send data at a very high transmission rate to a server to establish that quality standards are met, which will effectively decrease the amount of manual paperwork and potential margin for error.

4. Li-Fi in the Workplace

Li-Fi will not offer illumination but secure wireless connectivity in workspaces. As well as the networking capability, people will be able to take a Skype video conference call and move from one room to another without that conference call being interrupted. Workers and visitors will have a constant internet speed connection from the Li-Fi networks in the workspace. Through light, network access can also be controlled more effectively. For example, the overhead lighting in an office can provide access to the guest network, while desk lamps can provide access to specific parts of a corporate system with access rights assigned on a desk-by-desk basis.

Philips Lighting's LiFi-enabled LEDs are currently being trialling Li-Fi technology in real-estate company Icade's office in La Defense, Paris.

Emmanuelle Baboulin, head of the company's commercial property investment division said: "LiFi has the potential to be a real game-changer in offices. As the leader in our market, we wanted to explore the possibilities of this technology for existing and future clients." "We plan to showcase the technology in our smart office in La Defense, so aside from stable connectivity, the light quality is crucial to us," he added.

Li-Fi in a meeting room at CKR Law Firm in Paris

Philippe Pradal, a lawyer at CKR Law Firm in Paris, said the following about Li-Fi:

“Well, in our law firm, we're very concerned about the security of the data that we use, because we have, we handle a lot of sensitive data, the data of our clients, but also as a strategy that over matters. We don't want the hijack or hack through a Wi-Fi connection. And nowadays, Wi-Fi has been broadly used and people know how to penetrate a Wi-Fi network. So for us, it's very important to be able to offer to our associates, our clients, and our partners, a secured solution to access wirelessly our data, a 100% security. So we have equipped our meeting room with Li-Fi technology, and we're very happy with it. It's very simple to use and very secure. So the pretty basic principle is pretty simple. We have a receiver that is plug and play and people coming in with their computers or wherever with their phone, have to plug the receiver in their device, and they will receive the Li-Fi technology connection within the room. If they unplug, they don't have access to the internet. If they go outside the room they don't have access to internet. In other words, you know exactly who has access to what and when Li-Fi technology has two other main advantages. Maybe the first one is the fact that it is radio frequency free. That means basically that you can use it in areas where you have particular sensitivities. The second is vibrates allows you to exchange data at very, very fast speed solutions we have, for example, we already moved. It allows us to exchange about 200 megabytes per second, and we're very proud to be one of the first law firm equipped with Li-Fi technology.”

Credit to Oledcomm for this video

5. Li-Fi in Schools

The right wireless network is a crucial component to provide new learning experiences by connecting students and teachers to smart technology, enabling learning applications on any mobile device. Li-Fi can also provide seamless network connectivity and security throughout the whole school, from the classroom through to university dorms. Some schools have even started trialling Li-Fi technology in classrooms.

Li-Fi in classrooms at the Stuttgart school

A school called The Hegel-Gymnasium in Stuttgart is currently testing Li-Fi in classrooms to teach a broad range of subjects from everything to information technology. In Fraunhofer's prototype Li-Fi installation at the Stuttgart school, lightwaves from LED luminaires wirelessly carry data to boxes that are wired via Ethernet to laptops. Fraunhofer is hoping to move the box's electronics onto a dongle, similar to what pureLiFi is doing. Eventually, the chips should reside inside notebooks, phones, and tablets. The school principal Frank Bäuerle stated that "We are happy that our students are involved with a sensational research project, which is concerned with high-speed data communication without electromagnetic interference. Our teaching staff and students will gather experiences on the level of sophistication of the Fraunhofer HHI VLC-modules, as well as on which pedagogical concepts make sense with this technology. In this way, we will be able to assist in the identification of future technological development."

Pupils in the space – at the Hegel-Gymnasium in Stuttgart – uses modulated light from the LED luminaires to receive data to their devices, an emerging technology known as Li-Fi. Photo credit to Stadt Stuttgart, Yves Schneider.

Li-Fi in classrooms at the kyle academy

The Kyle Academy, based in Scotland, started using Li-Fi in the classroom. The Li-Fi project was run in collaboration with PureLiFi and The University of Edinburgh. The installation of pureLiFi's LiFi-XC system consists of eight LiFi-enabled LED light bulbs in the ceiling and students have been given access to LiFi-XC Stations that plug into their laptops, enabling high-speed connectivity through the lights.

The Kyle Academy in Scotland has started trialling Li-Fi in classrooms.

Li-Fi in classrooms at High School Bernard-Palissy

François Bonneau, president of the Center-Val-de-Loire region; Anne Leclercq, vice-president; and Francis Cammal, mayor of Gien, were greeted by Bruno Tomas, principal of the Bernard-Palissy high school, on Friday, to discuss the new Li-Fi technology installed in the establishment.

With the Grandmont high school in Tours (Indre-et-Loire), this is the only one to completely cover a classroom with this new tool.

Li-Fi ("Light Fidelity") is a wireless network technology that works with infrared light. It is faster than wifi and less risky for health and the environment, since it is light.

François Bonneau and Anne Leclercq met high school students who tested Li-Fi on dedicated tablets during a digital and technological science class with two teachers. “Since the start of the morning, the students have been watching bug-free videos,” said one of them. Before a student adds: “At home, I use 4G. There, with Li-Fi, it's faster, it's instantaneous. "

The Lycée Palissy is already equipped with Li-Fi (light and infrastructure in a room) and eighteen tablets. Keyboards and a charging cabinet will soon complete the equipment.

The total cost of the operation is 10,000 € for the installation of Li-Fi and 7,000 € for the purchase of tablets, keyboards and the charging cabinet.

6. Li-Fi in Retail

Li-Fi can help to direct shoppers from the time they enter the shop. It can also help them to locate specific products in the store, collect digital coupons, check store promotions, check stock availability of some products on the shelves, engage in-store online services through their smart devices and improve their store experience.

For retailers, Li-Fi can enable them to send promotions to shoppers' smart devices, displaying promotions and offers. Li-Fi can also help retailers understanding behaviour anonymously for most customers, understanding the demographics of their shoppers, enabling target marketing campaigns, conducting display advertising campaigns and checking real-time stock availability. Li-Fi will bring an opportunity for shopping malls and centres to be a frontrunner in gaining an understanding of their customers and ultimately influencing them.

Credit to Oledcomm

E.Leclerc INSTALLed Li-Fi in his new Parisian store

In 2015, the E.Leclerc supermarket opened its doors in inner Paris. The new store is located on Boulevard MacDonald, in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, an area that is still wild in terms of urbanisation. The decision to test Li-Fi in this first Parisian store follows a successful test by two E.Leclerc stores in the provinces, in the suburbs of Reims and Rennes in 2015. This time, Li-Fi was deployed over 2,000 m2 of surface area of sale.

This Li-Fi project was done in conjunction with Oledcomm, a french Li-Fi company. The company has been working on Li-Fi technology since 2005. Li-Fi can locate a smartphone with an accuracy of 10 cm, while it is only 50 cm for the beacon. And it is used to transmit data - such as coupons or promotions - through the light of store lighting lamps.

Credit to LSA condo.fr

This device will pick up the signals that each led will emit in the store. And since all the lamps are geolocated, the system will be able to precisely follow the customer's journey and even link this information to the sales receipt. "The advantage of the trolley is that it is anonymous," specifies Benjamin Azoulay , CEO of Oledcomm. The information will be sent to a LiFi cloud and the store can learn various lessons, such as hot and cold areas or time spent at the checkout. “Beyond trolley tracking, a smartphone application is also being designed to provide customer service, such as locating occasional products. The store is thinking about tablets, but it's all about budget and services. Infomil, the group's IT branch, is also working on this technology, and has set up, near Toulouse, a laboratory equipped with LiFi.

7) Li-Fi in Museums and Exhibitions Centres

For Museums and Exhibition Centres, Li-Fi can provide an enlightening experience to visitors. Museum guests can be guided to the artworks they want to visit, or along a thematic itinerary. They no longer need to look for information about the artworks. By simply standing under the right lamp, a LiFi system sends the appropriate description to them. Thanks to our LiFi-ready tablets, they can access to multimedia contents.

In Exhibition centres, Wi-Fi systems are generally congested due to interferences. With our LiFi connectivity modules, visitors can experience a good quality connectivity without interference. Furthermore, visitors are guided to the booths they want to visit. Exhibitors can also attract nearby visitors to their booths.

Credit to Oledcomm

The Grand Curtius museum trialled Li-Fi

In 2015, the Grand Curtius museum, based in Liege, opted for Li-Fi to replace its audio guides.

The flashing of an LED bulb sends information to the touchscreen tablets that will be offered to visitors. With this, guests are able to permanently geolocate themselves in the museum, automatically obtain details of certain objects located in front of them and even view them from all certain angles, previously digitised in 3D.

The Li-Fi device is in place at the Grand Curtius though at testing phase. As Fawzi Amri explains, from the Cellule informatique des Museums de la Ville de Liège. "We check that all the information is correctly encoded at the database level. Obviously, a spot must not report bad information. Each use scenario must be ergonomically checked. Make sure that "a button does not send us to the wrong functionality. The application must be the easiest to use. The visitor does not have to be constantly on the tablet, he must stay in the museum. This remains a support for the visit ".    

Li-Fi technology offers the visitor to discover, in a simpler way, the interior of the museum.

Fawzi Amri: "The visitor will no longer need to enter the number of the work in front of which he is in the guide. It is the light that will perform this operation. The description of the work is displays as soon as you pass under a lamp located nearby. You can also zoom in on details that are initially inaccessible to visitors. This technology could also be enriched by new audio or video content ". 

8) Li-Fi and Airplanes

According to a report carried by Inmarsat, 67% of passengers would be more likely to rebook with an airline if inflight internet connectivity were available. 70% of passengers would be likely to recommend inflight connectivity having tried it previously. 66% believe inflight connectivity is necessary. 65% of passengers that have had access to inflight internet connectivity in the last year used it, and 54% of passengers agreed that if only poor-quality Wi-Fi was on offer, they would prefer not to have it at all.

Li-Fi will allow passengers to access a much higher level of bandwidth than the one currently provided by Wi-Fi. Passengers will access faster internet connection, download and stream content at the comfort of their seats.

Professor Haas said: “This technology is perfect for planes as it doesn’t interfere with radio signals in the same way as Wi-Fi, which uses radio waves. Instead, Li-Fi takes advantage of visible light.

“Li-Fi is a game-changer for three reasons. First, it solves a ‘congestion’ issue. In the data-driven world that we live in, we are running out of radio spectrum. This is a problem in crowded places like airports and aircraft interiors as it means that the current available bandwidth does not support the hundreds of people wishing to use data-intensive applications and the internet in the same place at the same time. Li-Fi solves this issue by using 1,000 times the bandwidth compared with the entire radio frequency spectrum. This is additional free, unregulated bandwidth in the visible light spectrum.

“Second, it paves the way for local-area networks to be established, which means that passengers can make calls, use the internet and access in-flight entertainment systems more easily.

“Third, in a world fast being dominated by big data, safeguarding information is paramount. In the cabin, although Li-Fi signals can leak through windows, the technology offers greater protection to passengers than a Wi-Fi connection. But the biggest gains will be experienced by OEMs. Their manufacturing halls often have lots of LED lighting and few windows, which will enhance data security in their facilities.”

Professor Haas further stated that: “There are several hundred lights in a typical aircraft cabin. You’ll find them embedded in the seats, the floor and underneath the overhead lockers,” he explains. “But let’s take the passenger reading lights, for example. Let’s not think of them as lights, but as wireless routers. By harnessing the power of Li-Fi, an aircraft cabin can deliver speeds 300 times faster than an average Wi-Fi connection.”

“While any LED light source can be used, to guarantee the fastest speeds, aircraft manufacturers would need to install flexible RGB accent lighting, which requires three chips to create artificial white light for the best results. This lighting is more expensive, but it guarantees speeds of five gigabits per second. In contrast, traditional LED lighting only encodes data at a speed of 100 megabits per second.”

“In the future, the avionics databus system on a plane could be used to stream content to each lighting fixture. Each LED light source would transmit the data at high speed to a passenger’s laptop, tablet or smartphone. Each device would be fitted with a dongle that contains a photodetector and an LED – typically an infrared LED – to send data back to the lighting fixture. The photodetector would capture and process the intensity changes that each LED light produces and convert them back into a digital format that we recognise as the digital content, such as a YouTube video.”

“I think that in the future, cabins will be much more modular and malleable. In 10 years’ time, almost cable-free aircraft fuselages will allow airlines to temporarily remove entire seating areas and replace them with freight storage zones if passenger demand for a particular flight is low, and vice versa.

“But most excitingly, I believe that Li-Fi will herald the arrival of next-generation cabin designs. If cabling is no longer an issue, aircraft interiors have the potential to become more like the Japanese Shinkansen high-speed trains in their look and feel. Li-Fi opens the way for manufacturers to install larger windows on planes and bold new seating arrangements, where passengers are at last able to face each other.”

“With rapid integration and miniaturisation of Li-Fi modules, I would predict that in the future the cost to implement Li-Fi into aeroplane cabins would be between £10 (US$12) and £15 (US$18) per unit. Time frames in the aeronautics industry are difficult to predict because of the long development cycles and involved qualification procedures for equipment that goes into an aircraft. Also, it would help if there were a global Li-Fi standard. In this context, it has to be said that Li-Fi is currently being standardised in 802.15.7, and pureLiFi is a major player in this process.”With rapid integration and miniaturisation of Li-Fi modules, I would predict that in the future the cost to implement Li-Fi into aeroplane cabins would be between £10 (US$12) and £15 (US$18) per unit. Time frames in the aeronautics industry are difficult to predict because of the long development cycles and involved qualification procedures for equipment that goes into an aircraft. Also, it would help if there were a global Li-Fi standard. In this context, it has to be said that Li-Fi is currently being standardised in 802.15.7, and pureLiFi is a significant player in this process.”

“What’s more, innovations in airline cabin design are traditionally quite conservative and the pace of change slow. However, in the next three years I can see an opportunity for us to retrofit the technology into commercial airliners.”

Li-Fi Demonstration for Aviation by Astronics

Astronics, a leading provider of advanced technologies for the global aerospace and defence industries, sees Li-Fi as an augment to Wi-Fi and to leverage the IoT in aeroplanes.

Mark Schwartz, vice president of PDT, an Astronics Company, stated the following:

“The problem with RF is it has limited bandwidth within the spectrum you’re in. So, if an airplane gets smart, and uses Wi-Fi for sensors and things, and the passengers have higher demands for IFE and higher resolution screens, and then the pilots are using it, you’re going to run out of bandwidth on the plane. You can’t just keep adding WAPs.

You know that if all of us got on the Wi-Fi right now, 55 of us [executives on Astronics’ AIX stand], it would go really slow. So I think the first application should be the embedded systems within the cabin, so either the embedded screenbacks – where the passenger doesn’t even know it exists [and] there is a good line of sight to the receiver – or even like the big screen in the cabin, where you’re streaming down to that.

I think those are really good applications because it just takes some work away from the RF and leaves that for the passengers. Because the fact is, you only have Wi-Fi on your devices right now. Like I said, in two or three years, you’ll have Li-Fi on your COTS device too, or your PED. Once that happens, it should proliferate even more in my opinion because it works really well. And it’s actually true that Li-Fi is now part of the 5G framework because what they’re afraid of is that that’s going to run out of bandwidth when the needs of RF get so high that they’ll layer Li-Fi on top of it so in other words, you may have Li-Fi and Wi-Fi in your house working together.”

“They’re already on the aircraft. Yes you would have to wire them to the server, but you would have the external part of it done, right, because you can modulate these. Again you can use wingtip lights, landing lights, you could do a connection to the terminal itself, you could do a connection from the jetbridge. So while it is kind of a hardship that you’ve got to change the airport facility, if you think about the ROI of eliminating all the touch labor plus happy passengers that you’re learning a lot about, it’s totally worth it. And the last thing is that it takes the stress off of the satcom system, Why would you pay tons of money for satellite time, streaming things, when you can do it more intelligently on the ground by flipping the server at every turn?”

“Think about our portfolio. We own interior lighting. We own the PSUs, which are the lights over your head, we own all the wingtip, landing lights, and all the external lighting on the aircraft. We’re the connectivity guys; we’re the IFE and IFC providers. So this technology is going to go mainstream. It’s just a matter of time in my opinion. And I think we’re super well situated because of all these other complementary technologies. The enablers – we own the enablers.”

Here is the transcript of the above video:

“Hi, I'm Mark Schwartz with PDT and Astronics company. And today we're demonstrating Li Fi. If you remember at apex, we demonstrated the first generational Li Fi, which uses visible light from the PSU. This year we're showing off Li Fi Excel, which is twice as fast, but fast. In fact, it'll do 80 megabits per second. But it also is interesting because it's using high density infrared technology. So there is no visible light at all. One of the complaints we heard is why would you want to watch a movie with the light on? Well, the solution for that is using infrared, which of course you can see, as you can see, our old demo was using in streaming in HD movie. And if I cover the dangle, you see the fuel gauge strap.” 

“Again, we're using Li Fi this year, it's faster, we're doing a higher resolution 4k movie. And it's similarly if I cover this, you see the fuel gauge drop off. One thing that's interesting about lie fi is they're becoming part of the I triple E standard. They're going to be part of the framework for 5g to be used in complement with Wi Fi. So we think this is an important technology. When the demands on Wi Fi get really hot when 5g comes into play, Li Fi is going to be very important. And even agency like I Tripoli recognises that now here we're showing a new next generation concept for content loading. Today's standard is content loaders use high density hard drives, and they only update the content on each aeroplane once a month. And in order to do it. Maintenance, people have to go on each plane and load the content manually. So it's very kind of archaic. Our new concept is that all the content would live in the cloud on a server. And once 24 most people use their apps now for aeroplanes. So once you checked in, it would know who I am and what seat I'm in. And at that point after checking in, I could pick all the content that I would like to watch on the plane. So I could pick a couple movies, you'll see the movies come up over here on this screen as they're downloaded from the cloud. I can also pick training classes, Home and Garden, I can pick Game of Thrones, and you'll see they're starting to populate on the screen that would be in the aeroplane. Once all the passengers load their content, the cloud based server would go down to the aeroplane and basically clean up and make a mirror image of what content it needs for that particular flight. So as the aeroplane comes into the gate, you'll see the live fi light, light and upload to the aeroplane the content that everyone is ordered. Similarly, you can enable Li Fi on say a luggage cart. So if you didn't want to actually change the airport, you could put Li Fi on the cart, which could go down to the plane, and then do a quick download of Li Fi. So we're really excited about this technology because the current way to do content loading in my mind is kind of like Blockbuster Video. Hey, honey, do you want to get a movie? Gosh, I got to go drive to the store and get it and guess what they don't have it. Where this is much more like Google, Netflix. The other thing about the app is driving more people to the app is healthy because the airlines will start to learn more about your tendencies and what you're into. And you'll be able to do things like targeted ads to help generate more revenue. Again, next generation but we think we hope that it gets there someday.”

OLEDCOMM Installs 1 Gbps Li-Fi Connection In Commercial Flight

In October 2019, OLEDCOMM company announced that it had reached a connection speed of 1 Gbps on board a commercial aircraft, thanks to Li-Fi technology. This is the first time that a company has equipped a commercial aircraft with modems of the technology, an Airbus A321 providing the Paris-Toulouse link, in this case. Faster, more secure, more ecological and above all as inexpensive as Wi-Fi, Li-Fi technology could constitute, in the future, the ideal way to broadcast a very high speed connection on board an aircraft.

OLEDCOMM had previously succeeded in a Li-Fi demonstration at the Paris Air Show , in collaboration with Latécoère, Ubisoft and Air France, in which Clubic had moreover been able to take part (note that, since, Latécoère changed supplier of Li modems -Fi and now works with Signify) “ As part of a European research project, OLEDCOMM has recently demonstrated its ability to reach the exceptional speed of 1 Gbps and will be demonstrating it at the next CES in Las Vegas. This is something of which we are very proud ”, reacted the President of the company, Benjamin Azoulay.

9) Li-Fi in Disaster Management

Disaster Management is defined as the organisation and management of resources and responsibilities for dealing with all humanitarian aspects of emergencies, in particular preparedness, response and recovery in order to lessen the impact of disasters.

Disaster management: Li-Fi can be used as a powerful means of communication in times of disaster such as earthquake or hurricanes. The average people may not know the protocols during such disasters. Subway stations and tunnels, common dead zones for most emergency communications, pose no obstruction for Li-Fi.

Verizon, Nokia and Aegex Technologies hold a disaster testing resilience testing of the light-based LiFi solutions from pureLiFi, to demonstrate Li-Fi application in rescue communications and emergency response in the event of a disaster event.

The demonstration, called Operation Convergent Response (OCR), was held at the Guardian Centers training facility in the United States. pureLiFi demonstrated the application of LiFi technology in a subway disaster scenario. LiFi technology was used to maintain, real-time, bi-directional communications that could enable communications with a command centre allowing the emergency services to maintain safe, reliable connectivity during a response.

Jeffery Schweitzer, Chief Innovation Architect at Verizon, said:

“pureLiFi demonstrated that LiFi solutions could perform under real life operations and enable critical communications during response missions in chaotic and disastrous environments.”

Aegex CEO Thomas P. Ventulett stated that“Working with our technology partners like pureLiFi at this event truly showed the power of collaborative IoT solutions to solve complex problems in the most critical of operations.”

Alistair Banham, pureLiFi, CEO adds,

“ LiFi provides uniquely reliable wireless communications in unpredictable conditions such as disaster circumstances. Due to the growing pervasiveness of LED lighting and the high speed, safe, secure and noninvasive qualities of LiFi the applications for this technology are limitless. LiFi will provide connectivity for our homes, our offices or public spaces and beyond.”

10) Li-Fi and Industry 4.0

Industry 4.0, also known as the “Fourth industrial revolution”, a new approach to combining traditional manufacturing processes and technology, such as the Internet of Things (IOT), and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve automation, communication and use of real-time data. It holds the promise of better synergy between machines and their human counterparts and will help manufacturers to innovate faster.

In Industry 4.0, the connected ecosystem of the Internet of Things (IoT), will be able to help manufacturers and consumers alike to provide increased automation, improved communication and monitoring, along with self-diagnosis and new levels of analysis to ensure a truly productive future.

Factories are increasingly automated, and self-monitoring as the machines within are given the ability to analyse and communicate with each other and their human co-workers, granting companies much smoother processes that free up workers for different tasks.

Industry 4.0 isn't only being driven by the Internet of Things, however. Machine learning, artificial intelligence and big data analytics are all expected to contribute towards significant industry change. The development of network technology is also crucial for Industry 4.0 as any insights and efficiencies generated by IoT devices are only useful if they can be easily and quickly accessed.

Li-Fi offers satisfactory performance for real-time and reliability requirements for factory robots, particularly for closed-loop control applications.

Wieland Electric in Bamberg investigated the technological benefits of Lii-Fi technology in industrial environments. The electronics company uses the new data transmission standard in its in-house production to gain experience and include it in the development of LiFi for industrial communication. Wieland Electric uses Li-Fi at a production line for high-quality electronic components, namely for the transmission of data to the machine controller and the collection of operating data between LiFi sender and receiver. Configuration data are sent to the machine while information on output or faults is sent back to the Wieland operating data collection system. The connection to the data network is made with the optical communication solution Trulifi 6013 from Signify, which creates a safe point-to-point connection and enables transmission rates of 250 Mbps in one direction and 2 x 250 Mbps in two directions.

Stephan Lauer, Business Development Manager Light & Building Industry at Wieland states:

"The high data rate is not the only argument for using new technology in industrial environments. The error-free and uncomplicated transmission with LiFi where radio waves or cables make data transmission difficult is much more important."

Fraunhofer IPMS Developed a Li-Fi Communication Module for Industry 4.0

In August 2016, a team, at the Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems (IPMS) in Dresden, Germany, has developed a Li-Fi communication module that enables wireless networking of devices used in industrial production.

The optical transmission technology not only facilitates the exchange of huge amounts of data, but also supports the high real-time characteristics of automation technology. The technology is intended to supplement or replace wired fieldbus or Ethernet systems, which are prone to wear and tear.

The factory management system known as Industry 4.0 has already been introduced in many companies. In the “intelligent factories” of tomorrow, say the IPMS Li-Fi developers, processes will be fully automated and manufacturing and logistics will become increasingly computerized."

Credit to Fraunhofer IPMS - The Li-Fi GigaDock

The Fraunhofer IPMS Li-Fi communication module, named GigaDock, provides substantial advantages in such situations. Project Manager Dr. Alexander Noack commented, “Our GigaDock uses the available regulatory-free spectrum of light with a bandwidth up to 12.5 gigabits per second. That's 10 times faster than current wireless solutions such as WLAN, Bluetooth or ZigBee.”

“We were able to achieve very good real-time characteristics at distances of up to 50 mm and demonstrate latency values of less than one millisecond.” The driverless transmitter/receiver modules combine an optical transceiver and a protocol controller with a Gigabit Ethernet interface and can thus be easily integrated into industry-standard systems.

Developers from the Fraunhofer IPMS will present the GigaDock communication module along with other Li-Fi demonstrators for greater distances of up to 10 meters between September 19-21 at the ECOC 2016 conference and expo in Düsseldorf, Europe's largest conference and exhibition for optical communications. Fraunhofer IPMS provides individual Customer Evaluation Kits for the testing of its Li-Fi technology for different fields of application.

11) Li-Fi and Augmented Reality (AR)

Augmented  Reality  (AR)  is the process of overlaying and aligning computer-generated content over a view of the physical world.  By using a transparent OpenGL layer over the render surface of a  camera, we can display virtual information over Reality.  Some of the fields where  AR  can get involved are advertisement, architecture,  entertainment or music. Augmented Reality can also show data analytics on the device screen, without interfering with the environment and enriching the user experience. The data can be automatically processed,  like trajectory,  information, fire locations,  average time and escape direction, and the user can interact more dynamically.

In augmented reality, cables are a nuisance and the user wants to have his hands free. AR glasses can communicate using visible or infrared light (Li-Fi) in order to send and receive data.

With augmented reality glasses (AR), users can display additional information in their field of vision. This is not only interesting for warehouse and logistics, but also for assembly and product development or medical technology. Depending on the application, however, large amounts of data have to be transferred; Interactive content that reacts directly to the user's action must be available within a certain time.

However, cables restrict freedom of movement and wearers for mobile applications must have their arms free. For this reason, wireless transmission technologies are preferred for AR glasses. However, the usual standards such as WLAN or Bluetooth are not suitable for real-time transmission and the bandwidth is limited.

Dr Alexander Noack, Development Manager at the Fraunhofer IPMS, says, "Data glasses are a great example of the benefits of our Li-Fi technology. The optical wireless transmission offers high constant data rates, low latency, and maximum user mobility. It combines the flexibility of wireless solutions with the benefits of cabled transmission and provides even greater bandwidth than radio-based solutions."

Provided there is a clear line of sight between the transmitter and receiver module, optical data transmission can basically be used wherever connectors, cables, sliding contacts and radio networks have to be replaced. This is based on an optical data link with a data rate of 1 Gbps over a distance of five meters, which is also available as a customer evaluation kit from Fraunhofer IPMS.

The module can be integrated into existing systems via a CAT5 cable without any additional effort. Depending on the application, the size, data rate, transmission distance and interfaces of the HotSpot can be adapted and further developed to meet specific customer requirements. Distances of up to 30 meters and data rates of up to 1 Gbps can be implemented depending on the ambient conditions. Interfaces such as USB 3.0, Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet have already been implemented.

Li-Fi technology can be used wherever connectors, cables, sliding contacts, and radio networks need to be replaced.

12) Li-Fi and Virtual Reality (AR)

Virtual reality (VR) refers to a computer-generated simulation in which a person can interact within an artificial three-dimensional environment using electronic devices, such as special goggles with a screen or gloves fitted with sensors.

The concept of virtual reality is built on the natural combination of two words: the virtual and the real. The former means "nearly" or "conceptually," which leads to an experience that is near-reality through the use of technology. Software creates and serves up virtual worlds that are experienced by users who wear hardware devices such as goggles, headphones, and special gloves. Together, the user can view and interact with the virtual world as if from within.

VR technologies are growing at a rapid rate. Tech adviser Digi-Capital predicts that the VR industry will be valued at $25 billion by 2021. Deloitte even projected that the industry earned just over $1 billion last year. These are big numbers for an industry in its infancy. Gaming, video, and specifically live streaming, makes VR a fascinating opportunity to all kinds of content providers.

Quality VR requires users to have a speedy Internet connection. US military tests in the 90s showed that low quality video was a primary offender for why people get motion sickness when using VR headsets. Over the years, hardware manufacturers have done a great job in making sure VR kits are less likely to cause motion sickness. However, they can still get bogged down by latency and bandwidth issues they have little power over.

For VR devices, Li-Fi technology can provide very fast and constant data rates, low latency, and maximum user mobility. Li-Fi can also provide even greater bandwidth for VR devices.

13) Li-Fi in Airport 4.0

Digital transformation is compulsory to catch up with the growth and trends of passengers who are expected to be more connected and have more control over their journey. In an increasingly competitive environment, airports are focused on expanding and enhancing their appeal to increase their share of air travel and tourism, including innovation and a strong focus on improving customer experience.

 While safety and security always remain the top priority, airport leaders are also focused on ways to streamline the business and operations by leveraging technology to meet goals and objectives, as well as passengers’ demands. After all, in today’s digital world, there is no escaping the power of data, so harnessing its benefits is critical.

With the emergence of digital technologies, enhancing airport processes, airports are becoming more data-centric to ensure fluid processes and will ultimately bring values to passengers. Just look at the numbers.

Airports 4.0 is a digital framework encompassing infrastructure enhancement, capacity development and digital innovation that aims at terminal optimisation, operational efficiency, revenue generation and regulatory compliance. At the same time, this will also lead to the ultimate customer experience.

Li-Fi technology will enable very-high connectivity and real-time information access for passengers and staff by connecting all stakeholders in one fully integrated digital ecosystem. This will also enhance the customer experience.

With Airports 4.0 and the use of Li-Fi, passengers can travel smart and seamlessly with the use of a mobile app and being identified upon checking-in to churn out the single token data that will be used at all other checkpoints till the boarding gate.

14) Li-Fi and Military

The Military industry has developed an interest in the applications of Li-Fi in military operations. Frank Murphy, an engineer on EMSD's System Development and Engineering Team, has been researching on the use of Li-Fi in a tactical environment as the physical characteristics appear to solve many issues facing wired and wireless field command post network systems.

The technology has been used in expeditionary mission commands. EMSD came up with a concept for using LiFi within any enclosed mission command platform. LiFi eliminates the problems associated with the time-consuming task of running data lines in tactical operation centres and command posts. Moreover, since the technology does not use radio waves, it cannot be detected outside the confines of the mission command platform.

"The technology uses light waves to transmit and receive data between the servers and the user's computer," said Melvin Jee, the leader of EMSD's Command Post Platforms Branch. "As light cannot pass through walls, the enemy cannot detect the signal."

Murphy's investigation into the technology was inspired in part by Douglas Tamilio, the director of RDECOM Soldier Center, sharing an article about LiFi with RDECOM Soldier Center leadership. Murphy's investigation was also inspired by the vision of Claudia Quigley, the director of EMSD, and the RDECOM Soldier Center's ongoing partnership with the 82nd Airborne. The RDECOM Soldier Center and the 82nd Airborne have worked together extensively to find out ways to best meet the needs of warfighters.

Murphy explained that Quigley and other members of the directorate were working with the 82nd Airborne during a field exercise. During the exercise, Murphy found out that the setup of IT cabling was proving to be a time-consuming and difficult task.

"They had a hard time setting up their IT network, which isn't usually an NSRDEC area, but we felt that we could address the need," said Murphy. "Tactical speed is absolutely crucial for command post setup. LiFi is potentially faster, easier to install and doesn't have the security and exposure issues of other technologies. LiFi is un-hackable and untraceable when used within the command post shelter."

"It's virtually impossible to find the wavelength the data is being transmitted on, so if LiFi is detected, it's hard to intercept the data stream," said Jee.

EMSD is working with industry partners. Murphy explained that the commercially available technology was modified to fit a tactical environment. The technology will affect how Soldiers communicate and, thus, carry out a mission. 

"A command post of any size is an information processing center," said Murphy, "They take information from the field whether it comes in from a drone, Soldier/squad reports, other personnel in the area, satellite information, information from wheeled vehicles, or from behind the front lines -- all this information gets fed to the command post staff. They make a decision and then the information goes right back out. Lives depend on this communication."

"LiFi is part of NSRDEC's plan to provide a fully integrated platform with all of the necessary infrastructure in order for the warfighter to set up his command post," said Jee. "Just as a house is fully integrated with power, lights and network cabling -- allowing the homeowners to just concentrate on the furnishings -- NSRDEC plans to provide a fully functional house, allowing the warfighter and program managers to provide the "furniture.'" 

"In a command post, everyone has a job to do and they have their information chain," said Murphy.

"All these Soldiers need network access. With this, you simply shine the light over their head. After you hook the transceiver into the USB port, the transceiver will detect the signal and you will be hooked up to the IT network of your command post. It's as simple as that. We also hope to have it integrated into the wiring harness for the lighting so we can just roll up the tent and pack it away during a move."

"The people at the BCIL were incredible," said Murphy. "They gave us the perfect platform to showcase the tactical capabilities of this device. This project really showcases what Natick is all about. The Natick team dove in with both feet. Great things happen when people believe in each other and in an idea. We all want to help the Soldier." 

Murphy believes that LiFi is truly the wave of the future. 

"The demand for data inside the command post is only going to continue to increase," said Murphy, "So data quantity and quality need to improve to meet this demand. This technology can be hooked up permanently in rigid wall mission command platforms, but it can be used anywhere. We will be bringing world-class communications, security, speed and capability to the frontline Soldier. Information in the field is a weapon. This technology will help the warfighter make better decisions and be more effective and lethal in the field. This changes everything in the IT network system. It's a game changer."

15) Li-Fi and Navy

The U.S. Navy has funded a research program to delve into the development of Li-Fi, a method of communication via LED lights.  The Navy wants to employ the use of Li-Fi to enhance submarine communication systems. They currently use a slow and antiquated system for underwater communication that does not quite jibe well with the poor acoustics that lies underwater. Radio waves also do not travel efficiently underwater. For use in petrochemical plants or on aeroplanes, Wi-Fi interferes with onboard electronics.

Because of these limitations, a more straightforward Sailor-built LiFi system modelled after the RONJO design has a place in the Navy today. In a future battlespace of radar spoofing and communication jamming, the Navy needs secondary and tertiary technologies to support these mission-critical functions. Ship-to-ship LiFi can provide a cheap, secure, and, reliable technology for ships in formation.

Through experimentation, the Navy can take immediate advantage of the advances in LiFi discussed above. By looking at LiFi as a high-tech upgrade of the ALDIS lamp, the Navy can provide a necessary, dependable, and affordable capability to the Fleet. LiFi also has applications for the Navy outside of ship-to-ship communication in internal communication systems.

 The Navy has been experimenting Li-Fi technology for secure high data rate communications for facilities, vehicles and submarines.

“The Navy wanted to see what the effects of shock and vibration would have on the wireless link and the equipment,” explained APL communications engineer Ryan Mennecke, who along with APL’s Eddie Holzinger led the Li-Fi experiments. “We designed and manufactured custom mounts to install commercial Li-Fi equipment within the library of the aircraft carrier, which is located underneath catapult three. The test included setting up a standalone network to stream live video and collect test data of the optical link.”

Although the equipment failed during extreme vibration testing at APL, he said, results were better on the ship. “The optical link performed as expected with no loss in [signal-to-noise ratio] or throughput related to the shock and vibration of the catapult system that was launching and retrieving aircraft three feet above the system,” he said. “The system performed flawlessly.” 

Mennecke began exploring the technology through an internal grant to examine atmospheric channel modelling for Li-Fi links to offload data from submersible vehicles to drones.

16) Li-Fi and Underwater Applications

Most remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) are controlled by wired connections. The length of their cabling places a hard limit on their operational range, and other potential factors such as the cable's weight and fragility may be restrictive. Radio waves are quickly absorbed in water, preventing underwater radio communications. Since light can travel through water, Li-Fi based communications offer much greater mobility. Li-Fi's utility is limited by the distance light can penetrate water. Significant amounts of light do not penetrate further than 200 meters. Past 1000 meters, no light penetrates.

Sunlight entering the water may travel about 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) into the ocean under the right conditions, but there is rarely any significant light beyond 200 meters (656 feet).

The ocean is divided into three zones based on depth and light level. The upper 200 meters (656 feet) of the sea is called the euphotic, or "sunlight," zone. This zone contains the vast majority of commercial fisheries and is home to many protected marine mammals and sea turtles. 

Only a small amount of light penetrates beyond this depth.

The zone between 200 meters (656 feet) and 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) is usually referred to as the "twilight" zone but is officially the dysphotic zone. In this zone, the intensity of light rapidly dissipates as depth increases. Such a minuscule amount of light penetrates beyond a depth of 200 meters that photosynthesis is no longer possible.

The aphotic, or "midnight," zone exists in depths below 1,000 meters (3,280 feet). Sunlight does not penetrate to these depths, and the area is bathed in darkness.

Hydromea Li-Fi Solution for Underwater Communication

Connecting devices underwater can be a difficult task. Radio waves don’t work well underwater as they are easily absorbed by water. This means that radio waves can’t go much further than a meter underwater. Many sensors only offer a wired connection, but they are impractical because you have to remove the devices from the water to recover their data.

Engineers at Hydromea have come up with a solution: using light to transmit data below the ocean or lake surface. They have developed an underwater modem called LUMA that communicates through a rapidly blinking blue light. The modem converts data into light pulses that it sends out, or inversely, converts light pulses that it receives into data – all in the blink of an eye.

“We chose blue light because even though water is generally opaque for electromagnetic waves, there is a small transparency band for blue and green light. That’s what lets our system send and receive data over long distances,” says Felix Schill, the company’s CTO. While water readily absorbs most waves, and especially infrared ones, just blue and green light can travel through it. The red and yellow light waves of the sun are absorbed in just a few meters.

The hardest part about developing LUMA was making sure it could send data over long enough distances and work reliably under all sorts of conditions. “Because light generally diffuses so rapidly underwater, finding a way to send communications over distances of fifty or hundred meters was difficult,” says Schill. “It took us a long time to develop a receiver sensitive enough to capture tiny light pulses even from far away.”

Credit to Hydromea

LUMA is designed to work at depths of up to 6,000 meters. It is a fully contained unit in a plastic casing, which is completely encased in clear plastic so it does not collapse under extreme water pressures. The system has already been tested in the Pacific Ocean, at 4,280 meters below sea level, by scientists at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, in Germany. “We were later contacted by companies operating offshore that were interested in our technology for laying underwater pipelines or building foundations for offshore wind farms,” says Bahr.

Bahr and Schill started researching underwater Wi-Fi systems when they were both students in Australia back in 2004. They fleshed out the details of their design over the years, and finalized it during their post-doc work at EPFL. Today they still collaborate with the School. For instance, they are helping develop robotics and communications systems for LéXPLORE, a research platform located just off the shores of Lake Geneva, near Pully Vidy.

There, limnologists are using LUMA to regularly check on the data collected underwater and make sure the measurement instruments are working properly, since the sensors need to remain underwater for months at a time. One modem is installed on the data logger which collects scientific data from the submerged sensors and the other modem is installed on a subsea robot that dives down to where the sensors are located and collects the sensors’ data instantly. “The LéXPLORE scientists give us feedback on their specific needs, and this helps us further improve our modem’s performance,” says Bahr.

Source: https://www.photonicsviews.com/li-fi-allows-for-ultrafast-underwater-communications/

Sanoor Laser Li-Fi for Underwater Communication Systems

SaNoor Technologies Inc., an optics and photonics company in Luminate NY’s third cohort, is creating laser-based visible light communication (VLC) devices and systems for high-speed, energy-saving, eco-friendly and safe wireless data communication.

SaNoor is headquartered in Pennsylvania, and CEO Boon Ooi and his team strive to address the demand for high-speed underwater wireless data links for environmental monitoring, equipment management, process flow automation and many other industrial applications.

The SaNoor Laser LiFi combines laser lighting and data communications to offer transmission distance 50 times longer and data rates 100 times higher than conventional LED technology on the market. SaNoor’s mission is to provide connectivity solutions to particularly tough environments, like enabling an Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT).

“Addressing the unique needs of challenging environments like underwater data transmission requires novel approaches to technology development,” said Luminate NY managing director Sujatha Ramanujan. “We’re connecting individuals to the world-class resources available in this region and to the complementary innovation efforts that are underway to help them forge new partnerships and speed market delivery.”

Boon S. Ooi, Founder of SaNoor Technologies, stated the following:

“As a norm, we use laser based high speed, underwater wireless data transmissions and data harvesting to link devices from underwater, we'll be able to use those high speed communication links for many devices and vehicle in underwater, that bandwidth is enough to connect a lot of devices together that will enable internet of underwater things. Current underwater data transmissions technology is still extremely slow, we can only get a few kilobits per second, as compared to our technology we can provide up to gigabit per second, a few 100 times faster. In underwater MBM, the channel is highly challenging, because we have to deal with turbulence, we have to deal with constant motions of wave temperature gradient, even bubbles from sea floor that might interrupt the communication. In Sonora, we overcome this, our link is highly reliable. Our technology allowed to send signal from sea floor passing to the sea and the signal can then be picked out for example by drone or being able to send signal directly to a Boeing that is floating on the sea. And those would then be able to send signal to the land. further processing and monitoring. We can find a lot of niche applications are in gas industry and the water pipe line monitoring that need to monitor constantly in order to prevent and corrosions and not industry they need constant monitoring is an offshore wind farm. So use monitoring will become very important. Our industry is underwater environmental monitoring, coral reef monitoring our technology also relevant to marine mammals monitoring and so they were very honoured and very fortunate to be selected by Luminate being able to get into Luminate programme that helped us to acquire a lot of unique experience and knowledge in running a business especially in optics and photonics. We learned a lot in business, in financing and also in fundraising activity. And also we have very good mentors guiding us. Those will be experienced that we will never get if we do not join luminate programme, as a researcher is always good to be able to see research done in the lab being translated into real applications that solve real problems. That itself is highly fulfilling.”

17) Li-Fi and Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency is a medium of exchange, which makes use of cryptography to secure transactions and to control the creation of additional currency units through the internet. Cryptocurrency development has been actively growing since 2009, thus offering a broad range of possibilities for transactions between users. The first cryptocurrency created was Bitcoin, and as of September 2015, there were over 14.6 million bitcoins in circulation valued at $3.4 billion (£2.6 Billion). The success of Bitcoin has spawned approximately 1200 competing cryptocurrencies, such as Litecoin, Ethereum and many more.

Cryptocurrencies are virtual or digital currencies that have no centralised regulating authority. This means that money is produced and transferred without the intermediation of banks. Cryptography is used as a means of ensuring transaction security.

Bitcoin, created in 2009, was the first decentralised cryptocurrency and remains the most expensive virtual currency worldwide. Other popular cryptocurrencies include: Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Dash, Mixin, Litecoin, Zcash, Bitcoin SV and Monero. The cryptocurrency used in the most transactions daily was Ethereum in 2019.

The decentralised control of each cryptocurrency works through Blockchain, a public transaction database that functions as a distributed ledger. The size of Bitcoin Blockchain grows from year to year and it mounted to around 242 gigabytes as of the third quarter of 2019.

What is OWNII Coin?

OWNII stands for Optical Wireless Network Internet Infrastructure. OWNII Coin is developed to oversee, develop, and design the physical infrastructure necessary to implement Li-Fi in the United States and developing nations abroad and is sold privately. The pureLiFi company has manufactures and distributes the equipment needed to stream communication through existing LED bulbs but to implement Li-Fi , installation of this equipment is necessary.

Global Greenology, creator of OWNII Coin, states that the OWNII Coin will promote the creation of a new internet infrastructure in the United States and worldwide. It will also create numerous opportunities for employment, business ownership, and entrepreneurial endeavours selling equipment and services. The multiple streams of revenue that OWNII Coin represents brings unprecedented value. Once launched, the infrastructure creates new technology, software, products and services making this coin and ecosystem very valuable.

OWNII coin and the resulting financial capital it generates allows Global Greenology the opportunity to build the OWNII Ecosystem and effectively provide the technology to reach the end user and provide opportunities for manufacturing of the Li-Fi light bulbs and connection devices. It opens a level playing field for the smaller business owner or an entrepreneurial start-up company to get involved on the ground floor of this opportunity.

OWNII creates wireless communication, that is faster, addresses issues with internet security, allows localisation due to small coverage area of Li-Fi access points used for precise asset tracking. Furthermore, providing ubiquitous high-speed wireless access that offers substantially greater data density (data rate per unit area) than RF through high bandwidth reuse.

Finally, the OWNII Coin system exploits the advantages of cryptocurrencies over fiat currencies as a medium of exchange. In particular, it does not require any single agent or institution be trusted to keep an honest ledger, provide low transactions costs, or offer increased security to customers. The technical elements and infrastructure needed to implement the OWNII Coin system is already established and ready for execution, the only real challenge is the dissemination. Global Greenology’s establishment of the OWNII Coin system has the potential to disrupt our current expensive wireless communication system.

The primary benefits of Li Fi are as follows:

• Security: Provides entirely secure access. Where there is no light there is no data.

• Safety: Does not produce electromagnetic radiation and does not interfere with existing electronic systems.

• Localisation: Allows localisation due to small coverage area of Li-Fi access point - localisation can be used for very precise asset tracking.

• Data density: Provides ubiquitous high-speed wireless access that offers substantially greater data density (data rate per unit area) than RF through high bandwidth reuse.

18) Li-Fi and Smart Cities

A smart city is a place where traditional networks and services are made more efficient with the use of digital and telecommunication technologies for the benefit of its inhabitants and business.

The main goal of a smart city is the optimisation of city functions and the promotion of economic growth while also improving the quality of life for citizens by using smart technologies and data analysis. The value lies in how this technology is used rather than simply how much technology is available.

A city’s smartness is determined using a set of characteristics such as an infrastructure based around technology, environmental initiatives, effective and highly functional public transportation, confident and progressive city plans and People able to live and work within the city, using its resources.

The success of a smart city relies on the relationship between the public and private sectors as much of the work to create and maintain a data-driven environment falls outside the local government remit.

A smart city uses a framework of information and communication technologies to create, deploy and promote development practices to address urban challenges and create a joined-up technologically-enabled and sustainable infrastructure.

Smart cities use a variety of software, user interfaces and communication networks alongside the Internet of Things (IoT) to deliver connected solutions for the public. Of these, the IoT is the most important. The IoT is a network of connected devices that communicate and exchange data. This can include anything from vehicles to home appliances and on-street sensors. Data collected from these devices is stored in the cloud or on servers to allow for improvements to be made to both public and private sector efficiencies and deliver economic benefits and improvements to the lives of citizens.

Here is what pureLiFi is saying about what Li-Fi technology can bring to smart cities:

Li Fi can enable the realisation of truly smart cities. Street lights, building lights and transportation lighting can all communicate wirelessly. Li Fi can relieve public wireless congestion as an offloading facility for radio frequencies.

Many cities are introducing a wide range of connected smart city applications, including multiple installations of surveillance cameras, connected waste management control, lighting, parking, traffic control, public transport, and pollution and weather monitoring. We’re also seeing innovations like remote patient care from healthcare providers, improvements to production line efficiency from manufacturers, fleet tracking and control from logistics firms: the possibilities of the smart city are many, varied and growing. However one key issue that affect the full potential of smart cities is slow connectivity.

The use of Li Fi will enable smart cities to adapt quickly and safely to traffic jams, road and rail emergencies, weather dangers and other such urban disasters that would have previously caused major disruptions to urban life. Apart from the incredible speeds and low latency, Li-Fi is a more affordable and secure solution for smart city applications in contrast to Wi-Fi solutions.

19) Li-Fi and Train Stations

Ongoing, stable and fast internet connectivity has become a huge necessity for people and businesses to live their lives and operate, which is why it is offered as a free service in public places like shopping centres, restaurants and cafes.

Li Fi implementation within the train stations can bring the following benefits:

1) Great Passenger Experience: These range from tackling passenger boredom, allowing them to digest information via the login portal such as travel updates, apps to download or latest TOC news or offers, and even just providing them with a means of staying connected to their home or office while on the move.

2) Nearly seamless work on the Go for passengers: More and more people are using their daily commute to start or continue their working day. And their journey doesn’t just begin when they get on the train. Station Li Fi networks can give people fast connectivity to their emails so they can get right to work without interruption while waiting for the train to arrive.

3) Analysis of Passenger Behaviour: Li Fi station networks can allow TOCs to analyse passenger behaviour such as dwell time. This allows them to pinpoint the exact location in the station of where they can market to. With a continuously connected passenger journey solution, it also allows them to see which train a person with a connected device gets on, where they get off and whether they get on further public transport after leaving their destination station. This solution, just like free station Wi-Fi networks, can record how many times a device makes the same journey, which the TOCs can then analyse and integrate with their marketing strategies to start recommending suggested travel routes and promotions on the login page, or through their marketing database.

4) Gathering of Passenger Information for Loyalty: Gathering passenger information means TOCs can market recommended products and deals to them. For others who may have used the TOC’s other sites or apps, they will already have login details for these. This means that passengers will only need one set of login details to access ticket sales and the TOC’s website and loyalty schemes. This is highly convenient and provides a seamless experience.

Adif Trialled Li-Fi technology at Malaga’s María Zambrano Station

The Li-Fi trialling is done in cooperation with Malaga technology firm Datlight. One of the main purposes of the trialling is the evaluation of the capacity, practicality and user-friendliness of Li-Fi technology. Passengers will also be able to give their feedback of using Li-Fi at train stations.

Adif hopes that Li-Fi could offer a more cost-effective, lower maintenance alternative method to traditional Wi-Fi to improve digital accessibility across its network.  Adif also says that the technology could be used to complement 5G in areas where Wi-Fi typically suffers from signal loss.

The pilot is the first launched under Adif’s five-year Digital Transformation Plan for Passenger Stations, which aims to improve digital services across the Spanish rail network.

20) Li-Fi and Trains

Ongoing, stable and fast internet connectivity has become a must huge necessity for passengers using public transport however these passengers requirements have still a long way to go in UK trains. According to a 2019 usitch.com survey, it was found that 86% of rail travellers struggle to connect to the internet via Wi-Fi or 3G / 4G mobile (mobile broadband) on their Smartphones while commuting to work.

Some 66% of those, who experienced on-board connectivity issues, said they were unable to connect to Wi-Fi, while 56% were unable to connect via 3G or 4G, some 54% experienced calls dropping out, 43% were unable to make phone calls and 38% had found themselves unable to send or receive SMS messages.

In terms of Smartphone usage during train commutes, some 47% said they used it to access social media, while 39% had also listened to the music or the radio, 35% used it for personal correspondence, 31% for reading, 22% for shopping, 20% for catching up on work, 13% for watching TV or movies and so forth. While 5% said they NEVER used a Smartphone during their commute.

Unsurprisingly, rail commuters cited “frustration” as the most commonly experienced emotion when facing connectivity issues (66%), followed by “unhappiness” (27%) and “stress” (22%). The more essential or desired the task, the greater the frustration when you’re unable to perform it.

The latest survey of 27,000 UK train passengers from Transport Focus (TF) reported that just 33% of commuters were satisfied with the reliability of their on-board internet connection and only 36% were satisfied with the availability of Wi-Fi.

As we can see from these statistics, a great majority of passengers are not satisfied with their onboard internet connection on trains. Li-Fi can deliver speed on-board internet access as well as accommodating a large number of passengers on its Li-Fi network without compromising connectivity. Some train companies are considering to implement Li-Fi in the trains in the near future but this still at consideration stage.

21) Li-Fi and Underground Trains (Tube, Metro, Subway, etc..)

Some underground transport networks around the world offer internet access inside their tunnels or their underground trains. The Moscow’s Metro offers both Wi-Fi and mobile phone network to its passengers since 2014. New York has had fast and reliable Wi-Fi since 2017. The Metro system also has 4G, while the carriages at least have Bluetooth beacons that provide arrival times to customers using the MYmta app. Rome has excellent Wi-Fi service on most of its lines. Tokyo, Barcelona, Hong Kong and Melbourne all provide connectivity in tunnels. In South Korea, Seoul has even been trialling connectivity using the mmWave spectrum, which is expected to be a key part of next-generation 5G networks. However, some underground transport networks have yet to make that jump possibly due to high implementation costs and their transport network infrastructure.

As of 2021, the iconic London Tube network has yet to offer internet connectivity inside their underground trains. This is due to multiple causes. Firstly is cost. “Technically, it is straightforward, although expensive, to deliver Wi-Fi in stations,” says Matthew Griffin, head of commercial telecoms at TfL. To install it, individual access points have to be placed within the station ceiling or hidden in voids, with flat antennas providing the signal.

While this sounds simple, it’s very expensive to lay cabling to reach all these access points. “This cabling needs to carry a significant amount of internet traffic to manage a reliable and consistent service, one terabyte per day on the Tube, and requires careful engineering to ensure it can be delivered without interfering with other station infrastructure,” says Griffin.

In tunnels, the process is much more difficult. Some sections of the Tube are more than 150 years old and its tunnels very narrow, which means there is little space to install any extra equipment. Wi-Fi uses radio waves, which work great when they can move in a straight line and have plenty of space (say, up to and down from a satellite, or through your living room). But they run into trouble when they hit solid matter.

London’s Tube tunnels twist and turn, so any Wi-Fi radio waves would not be able to penetrate walls or go around corners. To deliver mobile connectivity on, say, the Northern Line, TfL would have to install an enormous number of access points – which is both uneconomical because of the cost of equipment, and unreliable as it will be tricky to maintain all these access points in such a confined space, says Griffin.

Well, Moscow for its part, uses a Wi-Fi signal with high frequency radio waves that provide high data rates. These signals work in line of sight, and that’s doable because tunnels in Moscow are wider and straighter than those in London.

Also in Moscow, the Wi-Fi repeaters are not in tunnels but on trains. The signal arrives through antennas on the outside, which increase the height of trains by three to five centimetres and effectively decrease the distance between the train and the tunnel to the right in the direction of movement by 30 to 40cm. Access points are managed by autonomous 'controllers', two small instrument in the back and at the front of each train that are linked by cables.

Wi-Fi installation and implementation on the Moscow underground network were not easy nor cheap. The Moscow Department of Transport and the Moscow Metro worked with MaximaTelecom to equip the systems across the whole 330 kilometres of tunnels snaking below the Russian capital. To get some return on this huge investment, the operator forces users to watch a minute of unskippable adverts before connecting (unless they switch to the ads-free premium option). The alternative is to use the cellular network, which offers fair to good connectivity in most tunnels.

This solution would not work in London because TfL’s tube trains simply don’t have enough space to install any of the on-the-train infrastructure. An alternative approach would be to install cables called ‘leaky feeders’ along the length of the tunnel. Tests on the Waterloo & City line in 2017 found that this method “would allow us to deliver good mobile phone coverage, but would not work well for Wi-Fi,” says Griffin.

TfL tested a range of frequencies – 800MHz, 1800MHz, 2100MHz and 2600mHz. Tube tunnels differ in length between stations. For example, The Waterloo & City line runs for 2.2km, so it was an ideal testbed for the effectiveness of signal propagation. “We fed the signal in at both ends, which avoided the need to have equipment in the middle of tunnels,” says Griffin. That’s because there is rarely space for any equipment to safely be installed, providing power can be difficult and, if the equipment goes wrong, we may have to wait a long time to fix it. As some Tube lines run all through the night during weekends, any fault would have to wait until Monday morning to be fixed.

TfL found that for more than 80 per cent of tunnels it would be possible to provide full coverage using frequencies from 800MHz through to 2100MHz. Most parts of the network could be covered by 800MHz base stations, while a couple of sections would need some additional equipment to make it work. Beyond 2100MHz, however, the signal’s reach declines sharply; at 2600MHz it’s less than 100m. This makes Wi-Fi impractical, which requires a signal at 2400MHz.

Another option that can be considered for London Underground trains is the use of Li Fi. As stated before, Li-Fi can deliver speed on-board internet access as well as accommodating a large number of passengers on its Li-Fi network without compromising connectivity. The cost of implement Li-Fi solution inside the trains will be much cheaper than Wi-Fi installation though installing Li-Fi on London Tube tunnels could prove a challenge due to their small size. However, Li-Fi could be useful for driverless trains, automatic train systems and signalling. Signify, Oledcomm, pureLiFi and many more Li Fi companies are hoping that Li-Fi out on trains will come at a faster pace in the next decade.

23) Li-Fi and Buses

Just like on trains, Li Fi technology can be implemented on buses in the public transportation sector. In November 2019, Signify announced their partnership with an Italian bus and train interior specialist to develop systems that would use light to deliver onboard entertainment programming, and would eventually deliver Internet service.

The partnership with Bodio-Lomnago-based Ellamp Spa would give passengers on private or public buses touch screen control of video displays mounted on seatbacks. Passengers could also use the controls to order meals and drinks, and to adjust air conditioning and light levels. The two companies are targeting public and private transportation.

Credit to Signify and Ledsmagazine.com. A Trulifi transceiver, installed at the centre of a headrest, receives the infrared Li-Fi signal and wires it to a video screen mounted just below it on the seatback.

All the server-connected movies, TV shows, and other goodies would be delivered via modulated infrared light waves. Li-Fi uses light waves rather than the radio waves of Wi-Fi and cellular service, a technique which proponents say portends faster, more reliable, and more secure service. Sometimes it uses visible light, and sometimes, as is the intention with Signify and Ellamp, it uses infrared.

“We’re on the verge of a new era of connectivity,” said Olivia Qiu, chief innovation officer at Signify. “Imagine having reliable, secure, and fast connectivity, wherever there is light. That is the promise of Trulifi — the ability to provide people with the same high-quality and secure connectivity experience whether they’re aboard a bus, train, airplane, or on the ground.”

One of the advantages of Li-Fi over Wi-Fi on a bus is that Li-Fi is would deliver a more stable signal that is not susceptible to jostling movements the way Wi-Fi is, Signify said.

“We’re currently in the pilot phase with Ellamp, which develops the interior systems on transportation vehicles such as buses and trains,” a Signify spokesperson told LEDs Magazine. “While we see healthy appetite from bus as well as train operators, we will announce the companies which are involved in onboarding the technology at a later stage.”

At that point, passengers would likely have to attach a USB Li-Fi receiver (a “dongle”) to their laptop or other gadget to use Internet service. Laptop and gadget makers have yet to embed Li-Fi chips into their devices the way they have with Wi-Fi. The absence of native Li-Fi on devices especially on smartphones has held back its uptake. Another the problem is that an indecisive standards battle is dragging on, between backers of protocols from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics (IEEE) Engineers on the one hand, of protocols from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) on the other. Chipset prices remain high in the meantime.

24) Li-Fi and The Refinery Industry

With many of environmental factors affecting the refinery industry, refinery equipment and transmission pipelines are placed under an immense amount of stress, in addition to normal operating conditions. For technicians charged with keeping equipment functional, having accurate real-time performance data and fast and stable transmission speed are invaluable and a necessity in their job roles.

The more detailed information a technician can pull from the plant floor about the operational status of equipment the better decisions can be made about preventative maintenance. For instance, a technician who is able to monitor a boiler’s daily run-time, pressure level and exhaust temperature in real-time can use the data to identify a problem immediately and fix it before it results in an outage. With historical operations data available, the technician can see the number of cycles the unit has run since its last maintenance check to determine if a repair needs to be made right away or if it can wait until the next scheduled downtime event.

As with all process manufacturing industries, uptime is critical to business success. And the oil and gas and hydrocarbon processing 
industries are no different. Refineries have three ways of monitoring production equipment and their transmission pipelines: remotely by wireless transmitters, using a wired network, or by manual inspection.

However, given the harsh environmental conditions and geographical terrain most pipelines traverse, along with the vast amount of land they cover, monitoring this type of infrastructure manually or with a wired network can be cost prohibitive, if not impossible. The same goes for refineries. Even 
though the location of a refinery will be conducive to manufacturing processes, the operating environment creates a difficult setting for 
wired and manual monitoring of equipment.

This is where Li Fi can fit in. It can offer the flexibility and mobility to monitor equipment across a facility remotely. The same goes for an oil pipeline. Wireless technology can be implemented across an entire pipeline or at a specific section.

Li Fi can also offer safety benefits for environments with explosive hazards. Where a wired network requires that power be supplied constantly to operate, creating a spark risk, wireless technology uses battery or solar power. A wireless network also provides increased savings compared to a wired network by removing the cost of buying and installing network lines. Instead, wireless technology offers a plug-and-go configuration, greatly simplifying installation compared to running miles of wiring.

The fundamentals and key strategies for implementing Li Fi networks are the same across all industrial settings. What varies from installation to installation is the size of the Li Fi network being implemented. A Li Fi infrastructure can vary from one to multiple networks, and from a small to a multipoint large-scale mesh network. Deciding which configuration fits best depends on why the network is being installed. The overarching uses for industrial wireless technology can be grouped into three categories: safety, reliability and efficiency — factors that ring true for the oil and gas and hydrocarbon processing industries.

The functionality of a LiFi network goes beyond monitoring and reporting equipment status. With the availability to implement Li-Fi technology on the factory floor, wireless technology can be used for activities such as aiding first responders in responding to an emergency call or equipping employees with real-time data access.

Li-Fi deployments can reduce instrumentation installation costs by eliminating expensive cabling. The cost of adding a wired instrument in a refinery can range anywhere from $5,000 to $100,000.

25) Li-Fi and Nuclear Plants

Wireless technology has traditionally not been used in nuclear applications, mainly due to restrictions in safety and security. The development of wireless applications has however been extraordinarily strong during the last years, and the technology is widely used in other industries.

For example, wireless technology has only been used during the overhaul period in Korean NPPs due to the electromagnetic influence of sensitive equipment and cyber security problems. The use of wireless technology in nuclear power plants (NPPs) has some benefits. Generally, wireless communication technology can be associated with a traditional wiring connection sensor and has the additional advantage of reducing cabling costs. Despite these advantages, it is difficult to apply wireless technology in operational NPPs due to problems with cyber security and electromagnetic interference/radio frequency interference (EMI/RFI). For instance, a wireless communication network is more vulnerable to hacking than a wired communication network. It has not been verified that safety and non-safety systems under EMI/RFI conditions have no problems during operation. The application of wireless technology, hence, has only been utilised during the overhaul period of domestic NPPs on the basis of safety having the highest priority.

Although it is easier to hack a Wi-Fi network, it is near impossible to hack a Li-Fi network as the attacker needs inside the environment where the Li-Fi network is placed. Li-Fi can also be be implemented in Nuclear plants for IEEE 802.11 smartphones (Wi-Fi standard), Internet Protocol (IP) phones, personal digital assistant (PDA) for field work, notebooks used with web cameras, and remote site monitoring tablet PCs for on-site testing. Li-Fi does not interfere with equipment highly sensitive to electromagnetic waves or radio waves.

26) Li-Fi and Villages

In April 2017 in a village located near Liberia, a company called Li-Fi Led Côte d’Ivoire installed solar panels to provide permanent lighting to its residents. They also provided LED installation to the entire village. Through these LED light bulbs, the residents have access to the internet and television without any wire or Wi-Fi connection thanks to Li-Fi Technology. Li-Fi can operate in remote areas with the right equipment. Watch the video below:

Li-Fi Led Côte d’Ivoire is a start-up combining for the first time the ICT sector and renewable energies to produce an innovative technology The LIFI transmission of data, information and the internet by light thanks to renewable energy (solar) in rural areas. In Africa, the problem of the energy deficit and its corollary of access to electricity for all, as well as the problem of broadband internet connectivity, are a major hindrance to both economic and social development.

By installing LEDs and using their light spectrum, this broadband device can broadcast TV channels. In Drongouiné, Ange Frédérick Balma, at the origin of the project, was able to make a demonstration at dusk.

"With this free Internet, we want to allow young people who have left their village to come back to participate in its economic development"

The man who allowed the village of Drongouiné to be equipped with this technology is called Ange Frédérick Balma and is 39 years old. He created the Li-Fi Led Ivory Coast start-up in 2014 which now has 12 employees.

We chose Drongouiné, because this village is totally enclave in the west of Ivory Coast. He has suffered greatly from the various conflicts for twenty years [the border region of Liberia suffered the counter-blow of the Liberian civil war between 1999 and 2003, Ed]. There, the mobile network does not pass. The inhabitants have to walk two hours to go to town and charge their phones or connect to 3G.

“We funded this Li-Fi kit project on our own funds, it includes solar panels, LEDs, electrical wiring and a Li-Fi receiver. It cost us 5 million CFA francs (about 7,600 euros). To prevent this from being too expensive, we tried to be creative: for example, we made recycled plastic poles by inviting the population to leave us their plastic waste. On these poles, but also in some places of the village like the school, the dispensary, or the house of the youth, LEDs powered by solar panels have been fixed”, said Li-Fi Led Côte d’Ivoire .

“Today, we see the first fruits of these big investments: thanks to this Internet, we have been able to set up remote training courses in the field of agriculture. Ivorian agronomists are videoconferencing on Skype or sending videos on WhatsApp to local farmers to show them how to improve product performance”.

Many young people from this village have been pushed to rural exodus. They are currently in Abidjan or in other cities with no real activity, to wait. I want to invite these young people to return to Drongouiné to participate in the economic development of their village, taking advantage of this free technology to develop activities via the Internet. This device has changed the lives of the village inhabitants.

Ahmedabad Start-Up Powers 2 villages with Li-Fi Technology

In February 2021, Ahmedabad-based start-up has powered up two villages with high-speed internet using LiFi-based technology. Akrund and Navanagar villages in Aravalli district of Gujarat have become India’s first smart villages with LiFi-based internet connectivity. With this facility from the start-up, Nav Wireless Technology, schools, hospitals, post offices, and government offices in these two villages will get faster and safer internet connection through existing electricity lines.

The company has invested Rs 20 lakh for executing the project in these two villages. Hardik Soni, co-founder and CTO of Nav Wireless Technologies, said: “We are proud to bring this technological revolution to our home state of Gujarat.” Soni added: “Nav Wireless has extended Gujarat Fibre Grid Network’s fibre internet connectivity from Akrund gram panchayat building to Navanagar primary school, which is at the distance of 1.5 km, with LiFi wireless optical communication.”

Soni went on to say: “We had also implemented Hybrid Microwave LiFi-enabled LED lights in schools, hospitals and in post office rooms over the existing power lines of the buildings.” The start-up has collaborated with BharatNet for implementing similar technology in about 6,000 more villages of Gujarat. This will be achieved by the end of the calendar year 2022. Funds worth Rs 500 crore will be allocated for the project.

27) Li-Fi and Solar Panels

A new form of wireless data communication using solar energy to create the power for ‘Li-Fi’ technology has the potential bring significant and profound commercial and social benefits to millions of people across the world, according to a new research project at Edinburgh University.

The technology was developed by a research team at Edinburgh University’s Li-Fi R&D Centre, led by Professor Harald Haas, co-founder and chief scientific officer, who said:

“LiFi is a disruptive technology which will shift business models and create opportunities ripe for exploitation. The dominance and lifetime of LED lighting has created a need for new business models in the lighting industry. The need to offer services, including new payment and financing models, creates an unprecedented opportunity for LiFi.”

“The need for more capacity for mobile communications has an incredible impact on the need for more spectrum. Specifically, the pending decision on the auction surrounding the 700MHz part of the spectrum in the UK and the possibility of regulation of the unlicensed spectrum, where Wi-Fi and Bluetooth thrive, provide key indicators as to the urgency of the problem. LiFi operates in the unlicensed and safe visible light spectrum where the spacial reuse of bandwidth results in dramatic increases in the overall capacity of a wireless solution.”

At this year’s TED Global 2015 event in London, Professor Haas demonstrated how Li-Fi can be used with solar cells to receive data, thus bringing into sharp focus how the likes of solar panels on houses or other objects such as smart watches, and in fact all future Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices can absorb power and receive data at the same time.

The prototype used in the demonstration was built in a collaborative partnership between the University of Edinburgh’s ground-breaking Li-Fi R&D Centre and pureLiFi Ltd

CEO of Global Greenology, Li Fi Tech and PCDSI Inc are also working on Li-Fi Solar Panels. Li-Fi Solar panels can be at the same time a great alternative power source to the community in African countries and a great Li Fi solution for fast internet speed connection.

28) Li-Fi and Low Earth Orbits Satellites

A low earth orbit (LEO) satellite is an object, generally a piece of electronic equipment, that circles around the earth at lower altitudes than geosynchronous satellites.

LEO satellites orbit between 2,000 and 200 kilometres above the earth. LEO satellites are commonly used for communications, military reconnaissance, spying and other imaging applications.

Li-Fi technology is currently used space research . In 2013, Nasa launched a satellite destined for lunar orbit that carried a novel way of relaying data back to the Earth. The Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration used an infrared laser working at a similar wavelength to those used in long-distance fibre-optic communication to send data back to Earth.

The 622Mbit/s link coped with clouds by switching between ground stations. The team found it was able to switch and resynchronise with each new station without having to fall back on a radio side-channel, which helps simplify the system. For space missions a shift from RF to infrared or visible light communications makes possible a hundred-fold increase in bandwidth.

The next step in the Nasa project is the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration project, which will be used to explore the feasibility of having satellites in orbit capture signals from deep-space probes and convey them to ground stations.

Visible light may prove the key to making it possible for robots operating underwater to talk to each other more easily. RF scatters so readily in water that it is hard to establish reliable communications except at very low frequencies – with equally low data rates. Water also absorbs visible light but, using Li-Fi-type modulation, blue-green lasers can send data much further than all but the highest energy electromagnetic waves. Even with blue-green lasers, scattering remains an issue but Li-Fi could be used for tens or hundreds of megabits per second communications over distances of tens of metres.

NASA's Kennedy Space Center and li fi

In 2015, NASA's Kennedy Space Center recently announced a partnership with Light Visually Transceiving (LVX) System Corp. to collaborate in developing a potentially ground-breaking technology in electronic communications.

NASA and LVX are studying enhancements to lighting system capabilities in hopes of improving the technology and adding features such as Global Positioning Satellite Routing Systems architecture. While the Intentional Space Station already has a Wi-Fi system, Holbert says a Li-Fi network may be a possibility for a spacecraft making the first trip to the Red Planet.

"A future manned spacecraft making a trip to Mars could be a candidate for this kind of communications system," he said. "Also, a deep-space habitat operating on the surface of the planet could use VLC."

Deep Space Habitat is a proposed NASA conceptual design to support a crew exploring beyond low-Earth orbit. It would allow astronauts to live and work safely for up to a year or more on missions to near-Earth asteroids, the vicinity of the moon, or on the surface of Mars.

Innovations such as VLC and Li-Fi are additional ways NASA is investing in the future. The agency continually seeks technology solutions that dramatically improve its capabilities while generating tangible benefits.

VLC also presents significantly reduced security risks.

"My biggest concern with using Wi-Fi in a restaurant, hotel or on an airplane is the possibly of 'sharing' my credit card information," Holbert said. "Internet traffic transmitted by radio frequency signals are always vulnerable."

Holbert explains that a building or facility equipped with LED light fixtures could be set up to use VLC technology.

"The prototype light fixtures we've developed are primarily made with readily available off-the-shelf hardware," he said. "We've been able to build simple prototype receiver hardware from $5 worth of parts."

With LVX now headquartered at Kennedy, the Space Act Agreement will facilitate the work of their researchers and NASA experts, such as Holbert, in developing new lighting technologies and applications for VLC. This will not only focus on the development of Li-Fi for use on future deep-space missions, but include innovations that have the potential to benefit daily life.

source: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/light-technology-being-developed-for-advanced-communications

29) Li-Fi and Car to Car Communication

The lightning quick transfer of information between vehicles becomes mandatory when danger is imminent as it can instantly diffuse a potentially hazardous situation. Connected cars will help cities and states cut down on congestion and improve safety. On the road, cars will communicate with each other, automatically transmitting data such as speed, position, and direction, and send alerts to each other if a crash seems imminent.

With Li-Fi, cars can transmit data seamlessly using rapid pulse of light over VANET (Vehicular Ad-hoc network) for high-speed communications.

“Our engineers have has worked tremendously during the last six months to develop this Li Fi integrated into the headlamp with dignity naturally. What we have achieved is to integrate our LiFiMax technology into the car. This is a great activity This is the first demonstration ever is those type of technologies in the automotive industry because we are able here with invisible light to convey data over 12 metres at 20 megabit per second”.

“Now we think the Li Fi will be used in the car to communicate with infrastructure, so called v to x. So we think it's a good way for redundancy to increase the communication between the car and the infrastructure but also the VTV the communication between car”.

“The potential is absolutely huge simply because with the other domains behind on the vehicle has to communicate, our many technologies are using the Heiko environment to communicate like LIDAR radar camera and there is a key word which we talk in this environment is redundancy, you need redundancy in terms of communication, not to make sure that the vehicle will be able to communicate in all conditions. So the radio frequency are not sufficient because you need also to complement those technologies with life It would be fun for example”.

“It's a very interesting was great to work with all that come on this project, I think Li Fi is good. For else purpose also all it can introduce that in the hospital to reduce radio frequency for exposure for the human and also the speed is a very good factor to exchange data”.

30) Li-Fi and Cybersecurity

In 2018, LHP Engineering Solutions, an engineering services provider and technology integrator has brought together National Instruments (NI), PTC and AASA’s LiFi subsidiary, 01LightComm to create a framework for an NI-Based Functional Safety and Cyber Security Validation Platform. The framework was demonstrated at NIWeek 2018 in Austin.

The demonstration addresses the universal automotive principles of Functional Safety violations resulting from Cyber Security compromises. The demonstration leverages the existing technology available in today’s market, introduces LiFi as a viable V2X communication option, and addresses the specific automotive Functional Safety risks in a Cyber Security realm.

Most interesting is the implementation of LiFi-based augmented Reality UI for fast and accurate visualisation of Functional Safety and Cyber Security violations and LiFi-based V2X wireless communication system transmitting real-time brake, steering, Functional Safety and Cyber Security data.

Li-Fi is a technology for wireless communication between devices using light to transmit data.

The Cyber Security platform leverages NI’s CompactRIO to validate assurance scenarios for Cyber Security within the vehicle, stage and orchestrate Cyber Security threat and vulnerability compromises in the vehicle and measure and detect Functional Safety violations as a side-effect of Cyber Security incidents.

LiFiMAX Cybersecurity solutions

In 2020, Oledcomm is launching a complete Platform for B2B & B2G optical wireless communication LiFi solutions. LiFiMAX Cybersecurity Solutions® ss a multiservice offering of state-of-the-art hardware and software. It includes the LiFiMAX® 100 mega, LiFiMAX® 1Giga, and the LiFiMAX® Controller:

“Following the launch of my LiFi in 2018 and LiFiMax in 2019. The Internet access point with invisible light, Oledcomm is strengthening its global leadership in Li Fi

in 2020, we are launching a complete platform of B2B and B2C Li Fi solutions.

LiFiMax cybersecurity solutions is a multi surface offering of state of the art hardware and software. It includes the LiFiMax 100 Mega, LiFiMax One Giga and the LiFiMax controller. But LiFiMax 100 Mega is particularly suited for workspaces requiring an unhackable wireless connection without radio waves, banks, insurance companies, accounting firms, law firms, hospitals or schools. The LiFiMax controller which includes the network controller and the administration software suite DHCP server and over roaming 128 bit AES encryption management and alert reporting for a perfect and smooth integration in your IT infrastructure. The LiFiMax One Giga at one gigabit per second the current world record and marketable and compact Li Fi products offers a very high speed connection for specific end to end applications industrial or logistic robotics aerospace. LiFiMax cybersecurity solutions is a complete universe that allows the optimization of Li Fi technology in many business sectors. LiFiMax has been delivered and tested in more than 100 locations around the world and validated by orange. Welcome to the world of LiFiMax by OLEDcomm.”

Conclusion

Li-Fi can be used for so many applications and the list is increasing every year. Who knows, one day, Li Fi could also be used for interstellar travel, deep space communications and many more. If you are also interested to hear more information about the OWNII Coin, investing in it, or to enquire about Li-Fi devices, you can contact us through our chatbot or by sending an email through our contact us form. If you enjoyed this post and would like to hear more updates about Li-Fi technology, subscribe to our newsletter. Don’t forget to subscribe to our social media accounts. You can also join on our Telegram group about Li-Fi technology on this link:

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