LiKEY LiFi System By LiNA

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LiKEY LiFi System By LiNA

In this article, we will talk about the LiKEY LiFi system made by LiNA. We will first talk about the company LiNA, its CEO and founder and the LiKEY system.

LiNA

LiNA is a french LiFi company founded in 2018 and is currently based in Palaiseau, Île-de-France. LiNA is an innovative company specialising in LiFi technology (Data transmission via light). It develops and deploys hardware and software solutions to improve business performance. LiNA's offer currently revolves around three solutions:

LiKEY: ultra-secure access control management solution via smartphone;

LiSA: innovative lighting control solution (smart lighting);

LiMAP: indoor way finding and indoor space management solution using indoor geolocation technology.

Thanks to its multi-technical expertise, LiNA offers companies turnkey solutions.

LiNA's ambition is to become a world leader in LiFi, thanks to its progressively expanding portfolio of services. In a context of ever-increasing connectivity, security and environmental constraints, LiNA aims to create a digital ecosystem from light to meet the challenges of tomorrow.

LiNA Vision

Today under-exploited, light has the particularity of being everywhere and of being a harmless and most secure means of communication. Moreover, LiNA believe that the best technological solutions must be based on existing infrastructures and installations.

This is why their solutions are based on the most universal of networks: lighting. The LED is gradually establishing itself as the preferred means of lighting with energy savings as a result. Due to its remarkable physical properties, LED today offers new possibilities, thus opening a new era for lighting.

As a result, LiNA's solutions reduce the carbon impact of buildings while offering innovative services to its occupants and visitors.

The CEO and Founder

LiNA was founded by Théo Lazuech. A graduate in photonics engineering and then in management (MBA), Théo Lazuech is now one of the few experts in LiFi technology in the world.

After having worked in the Technical and Financial management of IT & Telecom services, he embarked on this entrepreneurial adventure. LiFi is a technology that he encountered during his engineering graduation project. He then ended up with a prototype operating at a level close to the commercial state of the art at the time.

Théo Lazuech holds the position of CEO of LiNA, with the current main missions of strategy, finance, product marketing, commercial prospecting and the technical architecture of solutions.

Committed by nature, Théo Lazuech is determined to create innovative solutions that bring benefits to humans and the environment.

LiKEY LiFi System

According to their site, the LiKEY system is an innovative access control solution powered by LiFi technology. LiNA further states the following benefits of the LiKEY system:

-Plug and Play system

-Smartphone app (Android & iOS)

-Secure hosting of applications and data

-LiKEY hardware for network and access control

-Web-based access control management platform

-Software and user support

-Security and Serenity: Unlike NFC and Bluetooth, it is impossible to hack access.

-Accessibility: Our solution is compatible with 100% of smartphones.

-Practicality: No need for a key! Your accesses are unlocked with the flash of your smartphone.

USER DEVICE REQUIREMENTS

Android & iOS

PRICE

The LiKEY device alone can cost around 400 euros (£340; $415). Other accessories and devices come at different prices.

How it works

To activate the lock, you will need to have an application downloaded on your smartphone that will trigger a sequence of light specific to your lock to trigger the opening. This flash allows you to authenticate securely. It's very simple, just place your smartphone in front of the lock to open or close the door, it's simple, convenient and secure. If you don’t have a smartphone, LiNA has also designed a smart key to unlock your accesses.

Credit to LiNA SAS - Smart key to open LiKEY locks.

LiNA SAS also stated that they are aware the perfect product can only have harmonious shapes. There are also different designs available to choose.

Credit to LiNA SAS

Credit to LiNA SAS

Credit to LiNA SAS

You can also watch the following video to see a demonstration by Mr Théo Lazuech on how the LiKEY system works. The video is in french however we managed to translate the original transcript in English.

English Translation

“Hello, I am Théo Lazuech, founder of the start-up LiNA, a start-up specialised in Li-Fi technology which is the transmission of data by light. So today I'm going to introduce you to the access control solution we call LiKEY. So today, to do access control, we essentially use three types of media, which are keys, badges and even remote controls. And as everyone has been able to experience it, we have relatively many of them that we constantly follow. So it's relatively bulky and maybe it's not that. The current main defect is that today, what is expected of an access control solution? It really secures access to premises. Except that today, there are many limits with respect to current solutions. On one hand, in use, can keys, badges and others be treated or easily stolen? And on the other hand, techniques and technological which is only a key or a badge. One can easily copy them in a pirated way or even not for that matter. And that is a real problem. And on the other hand, we can use other types of solutions which are biometrics. Except that it is extremely expensive and legally very complex to use on a large scale for an organisation. So, the LiKEY solution is an access control solution that relies on the smartphone as a badge. The particularity is that, instead of using RFID and NFC technology to establish communication, the smartphone camera flash is used. This has several advantages”.

“On the one hand is that the smartphone. All smartphones are already compatible since they are all equipped with a flash and on the other hand we know that the telecommunication that we are going using flash is going to be totally interesting. Without further delay, I will simply demonstrate. I take my smartphone, I'm going to approach the access control reader. There is a communication that is established between the reader and the smartphone and a door is simply unlocked. So you see, it's a pretty common pattern that exists in access control. So we have an access reader which is on the wall, connected behind with an exit button. With manual trigger and door concept. And there, the type of bike we use is a fairly classic lock since it's a suction cup type lock. So here is a solution that relies on hardware but also on a whole software suite. There is a SAS web application on which you can manage all access, configure door locations on a card, take it remotely, take it in hand remotely, open the door and delegate access management to any type of manager and obviously manage access rights to all users. It is a solution that is aimed at companies, facility management or coworking spaces or business hotel, business incubator, but also on other markets such as the hotel industry or the collective residential sector. It is a very innovative solution, patented at European level, which I hope will attract your attention”.

French original transcript

“Bonjour, je suis Théo Lazuech, fondateur de la start up LiNA, une start up spécialisée dans la technologie Li-Fi qui est la transmission de données par la lumière. Donc aujourd'hui, je vais vous présenter la solution de contrôle d'accès que nous appelons LiKEY. Donc aujourd'hui, pour faire du contrôle d'accès, on utilise essentiellement trois types de supports qui sont les clés, les badges et même les télécommandes. Et comme chacun a pu en faire l'expérience, on en a relativement beaucoup que l'on fait suivre en permanence. Donc c'est relativement encombrant et c'est peut être pas ça. Le défaut principal actuel, c'est que aujourd'hui, qu'est ce qu'on attend d'une solution de contrôle d'accès? C'est qu'elle sécurise vraiment l'accès à des locaux. Sauf qu'aujourd'hui, il y a beaucoup de limites vis à vis des solutions actuelles. D'une part, à l'usage, est ce que les clés, les badges et autres, on peut les traiter ou se les faire voler facilement? Et d'autre part, techniques et technologiques qui est qu'une clé, un badge. On peut facilement les copier de manière pirate ou même pas d'ailleurs. Et ça, c'est un vrai problème. Et d'autre part, on peut utiliser d'autres types de solutions qui sont de la biométrie. Sauf que c'est extrêmement coûteux et juridiquement très complexe à utiliser à grande échelle pour une pour une organisation. Donc la solution LiKEY, c'est une solution de contrôle d'accès qui s'appuie sur le smartphone en tant que badge. La particularité, c'est que, au lieu d'utiliser la technologie RFID et NFC pour établir une communication, on utilise le flash de la caméra du smartphone. Serre a plusieurs avantages”.

“D'une part, c'est que le smartphone. Tous les smartphones sont déjà compatibles puisqu'ils sont tous équipés d'un flash et d'autre part on sait que la télécommunication que l'on va. Faire grâce au flash va être totalement intéressant. Sans plus attendre, je vais procéder à une démonstration. Tout simplement, je prends mon smartphone, je vais l'approcher du lecteur de contrôle d'accès. Il y a une communication qui s'établit entre le lecteur et le smartphone et on déverrouille une porte tout simplement. Donc vous voyez donc c'est un schéma assez commun qui existe dans le contrôle d'accès. Donc on a un lecteur d'accès qui est au mur, connecté derrière avec un bouton de sortie. Avec un déclencheur manuel et un concept de portes. Et là, le type de vélo qu'on utilise, c'est un verrou assez classique puisque c'est un verrou de type ventouse. Voilà donc une solution qui se repose sur du hardware mais aussi sur toute une suite logicielle. Il y a une application web en SAS sur lesquels on peut gérer tous les accès, configurer les emplacements de porte sur une carte, prendre à distance, la prendre en main à distance, l'ouverture de la porte et déléguer la gestion des accès à tout type de manager et évidemment gérer les droits d'accès à tous les utilisateurs. C'est une solution qui s'adresse aux entreprises, au facility management ou aux espaces de coworking ou hôtel d'entreprises, pépinière d'entreprises, mais aussi sur d'autres marchés comme l'hôtellerie ou alors le secteur résidentiel collectif. C'est une solution très innovante, brevetée au niveau européen, que j'espère vous attirer votre attention”.

LIna contact details

If you are interested in getting more information about their products or purchasing any of their products, you can contact LiNA on the following details:

Phone: +33 6 98 70 93 87

Email: contact@lina.lighting

Address: 42 Cours Pierre Vasseur, 91120 Palaiseau, France

Li-Fi Conference 2022

The next Li-Fi Conference is coming up on the 28th of June 2022 between 10 am and 4.30 pm CET.

It is interesting to realise that lights that illuminate offices, homes, cars, factories, our streets and more locations also can connect us to data and hence power the growing demand for connectivity and speed.

At this conference professionals from all over the globe will gather together in order to share applications, ideas, new developments and ways to integrate Li-Fi in services, both for consumers and professionals.

This conference will be held Live and Online. The venue will be the High Tech Campus 1, The Strip 5656 AE Eindhoven The Netherlands.

Online tickets can be bought at the following link:

https://tikcit.com/register/61e002336d7fc4b6745cab83/

What is LiFi?

LiFi, also known as "Light Fidelity" is a wireless optical networking technology, which uses light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to transmit data. In 2011, professor Harald Haas made a LiFi demonstration at the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Global Talk on Visible Light Communication (VLC).

VLC uses light as a medium to deliver high-speed communication like Wi-Fi and complies with the IEEE standard IEEE 802.15.7. The IEEE 802.15.7 is a high-speed, bidirectional, and fully networked wireless communication technology-based standard similar to Wi-Fi's IEEE 802.11.

How does LiFi work?

LiFi is a high speed, bidirectional, and fully networked wireless communication of data using light. LiFi constitutes of several light bulbs that form a wireless network.

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.

LiFi Benefits

The primary benefits of LiFi 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 the small coverage area of LiFi 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.

Credit to Oledcomm

LiFi Applications

LiFi can be used for so many applications and the list is increasing every year. You can read our updated list of LiFi applications at the following link:

https://www.lifitn.com/blog/2021/2/13/top-30-li-fi-applications-updated-list-including-potential-applications

Credit to pureLiFi

In conclusion, if you are also interested to hear more information about the OWNII Coin or enquire about LiFi devices such as the LiFiMax and Trulifi, 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 LiFi technology, subscribe to our newsletter. Don’t forget to subscribe to our social media accounts. You can also join our Telegram group about LiFi technology on this link:

https://t.me/joinchat/FMzOmsEKyJFrU6Af

Interview with Marc Fleschen, Chairman, Light Communications Alliance (LCA) by Pieter Hermans, JakajimaTV, About Li-Fi And More

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Interview with Marc Fleschen, Chairman, Light Communications Alliance (LCA) by Pieter Hermans, JakajimaTV, About Li-Fi And More

Li-Fi Conference 2021

Happy new month everyone. Last month, we did a recap article series on last year ONLINE Li-Fi Conference. The conference was organised by the Jakajima, the global High Tech Conference organiser, and the Light Communications Alliance.

Jakajima, Matchmaker for Innovators in the high tech industry, organises many events, ranging from LiFi Technology industry trends, 3D Printing to the Internet of Things, from Unmanned Cargo Aircraft to Health Tech, from 4D Printing to Photonics and from Vertical Farming to Sustainable Materials.

The online Li-Fi Conference included live presentations from researchers, executives and industry specialists from pureLiFi, Nokia, Signify, Orange, Radiocommunications Agency Netherlands, Velmenni, OLEDCOMM, HomeGrid Forum and Weidmüller Deutschland.

In today’s article, we revisited an interview between Mark Fleschen,Chairman of the Light Communications Alliance (LCA) and Pieter Hermans, CEO of JakajimaTV. This interview was conducted few weeks prior to last year Li-Fi conference.

Interview on Light Communications Alliance and LiFi

Pieter Hermans: Welcome back JakajimaTV. Today, I have an interview with Mark Fleschen. He is the chairman of the Light Communications Alliance. So welcome Mark, thank you very much for being here. Let's start immediately. Can you explain to us the motivation for a light communication line and how it was created and why it exists?

Mark Fleschen: The reason behind the Light Communication Alliance is to actually help promoting light communication technology and overall, educate the market about this technology, how we operate, how it works, the benefits and how it could be implemented. So, the main reason we decided to create this LCA was definitely to be able to do market education and promote by default I mean use cases, white paper and gather an ecosystem on this technology in particular.

Pieter Hermans: Okay. And this alliance consists of members, so could you tell us a bit about the broadness of the members you have.

Mark Fleschen: Here now the LCA was officially created in December of 2019. Since then, we have had different groups of companies that joined the LCA. The companies that joined from the very beginning are founding members, and they are well known companies such as Orange, pureLiFi, Nokia Bell Labs, which is part of it, the IMT, Zero1. And then we have strategic members that newly joined the FCA after it's been officially created and we have also very prominent companies such as Signify, Oledcomm that join the LCA lately and the PLC is working for membership fees so it's an annual membership fees and that you access monthly meetings, quarterly meeting, Annual General Meeting, access to white paper on even participation to whitepaper. 

Pieter Hermans: And what is the scope exactly, because in light communication is for the standard person very vague. So, could you explain a bit what it is and what is the technology scope?

Mark Fleschen: Officially, the three different angles that the light communication is working on as of today is FSO which stands for Free Space Optics, which is a technology that we know and has been existing for now, a little bit while even though it's not the technology that we focus on as many of the key partners are actually into LIFI, which is then using visible and invisible light that comes for free bidirectional network system which is basically Internet access by visible and invisible light and the third one, which is OCC which is another technology which is more very low data right you need a directional system, which is basically a broadcast system that light can be sending data and be received by CMOS which is basically your camera off a mobile device, which is those three aspects are that we expect that is your scope of work of the LCA.

Pieter Hermans: Okay so OCC stands for optical camera communication,

Mark Fleschen: This is correct.

Pieter Hermans: So, what are the, when you start talking about the technological scope, what are the key advantages of light communication?

Mark Fleschen: Well, light communication first and foremost the most important part of the LCA message is that the light communication and LIFI are actually alongside with any other technology, I mean, the light communication is not here to replace or to compete with any type of radiofrequency technology or any other type of technologies. Light communication has a lot of benefits due to his physical aspects. For example, security is one of them because the beam of light and the dimension of the beam offline makes it very hard to intercept because you are between two different points. It has a greener spectrum energy because obviously, it's using light which is sometimes already in place. And the third one is audio frequency, which is again based on the physical aspect of light communication in general. So those aspects make that  a larger bandwidth, a low latency and actually can bring much more physical benefits to services where other technologies such as audio frequencies based technologies cannot access. 

Pieter Hermans: Okay. And could you mention or could you give some examples like use cases where other technologies cannot be used?

Mark Fleschen: Well, for example, hospital is one of them. I mean, if you talk about hospital or hospital in general are not the best place for our radiomagnetics or electromagnetics and LIFI therefore would have a huge benefits in the Industry 4.0, car to car communications, smart cities, V to X on V two infrastructure and education, education is the reason behind is that schools have a very specific type of place. And obviously, sometimes communication could actually bring a lot of benefits.

Pieter Hermans: Okay, okay. So a broad range of applications or possible.

Mark Fleschen: Yes, use cases, mainly, we focus on the most useful ones as well as implementing the technology and the most obvious one, obviously, like education and the hospital and the Industry 4.0, which are very well known to have very specific needs.

Pieter Hermans: Okay. And so if I am a CEO of a company, why should I, why should I become a member of the Light Communication Alliance, and why is it good for me?

Mark Fleschen: The good thing about the Light Communication Alliance, it's that we create an ecosystem of a lot of different partners and the range of partners are very wide. Obviously, there are LIFI key partners, which are LIFI vendors and manufacturers. We have the manufacturers, we have people in Quantum Cryptography, and we have mobile, and manufacturer or terminal manufacturers or device manufacturers. So obviously, if you want to be part of a new generation of technology, such as light communication, and you are looking for an ecosystem, where you can have access to partners that obviously could sometimes need you. It's definitely a good place to be because you've got access to a really wide range of ideas here from applications to solutions oriented. This is where you can benefit.

Pieter Hermans: I understand that light communication is really your passion. So, can you explain to me why you have this passion? What was special about this technology,

Mark Fleschen: The technology is really something that personally passionate is the passion, passion of me, because I've been I've been seeing technologies and there is multiple cycle that was 20 years ago in that context and that technological cycle, and now we're going through another cycle again, and more than ever, this period of time, I think the main problem we have is the pressure on infrastructure and more than ever we go through a lot of different problematics such as as energy efficiency, sustainability and more pressure on technology right now, because there is so much more coming like cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, virtual reality, but the problem is that the infrastructure has been optimised but we haven't really inventing something new in the past 20 years. We optimise something which was already existing, but the pressure is even more up to date. And those concerned make that light communication a huge opportunity because obviously, it has a larger, wider bandwidth. It's Lightspeed and it's green. And when you look at all the advantages of light communications, you just wonder why it's not going to be the one of the answers to today's problems and to these problems are bigger than they were 20 years ago.

Pieter Hermans: Okay. And is there also a specific, let's say, geo political reason also?

Mark Fleschen: I think for the first time, we have the opportunity in Europe to have a huge ecosystem there is many, many companies which are already part of the LCA such as Signify, Oledcomm, pureLiFi and we have a nest in Europe which is really well advanced right now in like communication and of course, we are including Wi-Fi international companies but behind it we have so many companies in Europe right now so well advanced. So many companies working alongside, we have a huge advantage right now at European level and we want to promote that and so we want to really gather all those companies and try to push it because we have a European advantage currently in light communication and that has to be promoted as well. 

Pieter Hermans: Okay. Well, thank you very much, Mark for your explanation of the light communication line and look forward to hearing more about it at the upcoming Li-Fi conference. So thank you very much.

Light Communication Alliance

The Light Communication Alliance (LCA) is the authority on light communication. The LCA states that they are the most extensive light communications alliance in the world, a recognised leader. They are building demand for light communication through collaboration. As an alliance, they leverage partnerships between industry leaders to validate use cases and build functioning ecosystems. With the aim of ultimately inspiring global investment in light communication.

The LCA is an open, non-profit association of members who aim to promote Light Communications technology with a consistent, focused and concise approach. The LCA highlights the benefits, use cases and timelines for Light Communications adoption. The organisation aligns innovative leaders across the industries that light and communications touches, defining standards for education, communication, and interoperability.

The founding members of the LCA are Nokia, Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (du), Liberty Global, Lucibel,  pureLiFi, LiFi Research & Development Centre, Velmenni, Zero.1, CEA Leti, and Institut Mines-Télécom.

Light Communication technologies include Light Fidelity (LiFi) and Optical Camera Communications (OCC) both of which have been attracting increased attention over recent years within several industries, such as smart cities and homes, industry 4.0 and manufacturing environments, as well as retail and tourism.

Global Market Insights predicts that the LiFi market will be worth $75 billion by 2025, creating broad, far-reaching opportunities for the related industries to benefit from Visible Light Communications.

Founding Members of the LCA

Nokia

Nokia creates the technology to connect the world. They develop and deliver the industry’s only end-to-end portfolio of network equipment, software, services and licensing that is available globally. Their customers include communications service providers whose combined networks support 6.1 billion subscriptions, as well as enterprises in the private sector and public sector that use their network portfolio to increase productivity and enrich lives.

Through their research teams, including the world-renowned Nokia Bell Labs, they are leading the world to adopt end-to-end 5G networks that are faster, more secure and capable of revolutionizing lives, economies and societies. Nokia adheres to the highest ethical business standards as they create technology with social purpose, quality and integrity.

nokia.com

pureLiFi

pureLiFi is a Light Communications company that was founded by Prof. Harald Haas and Dr Mostafa Afgani in 2012 as a spin out of the University of Edinburgh. pureLiFi offers both LiFi systems and Gigabit LiFi light antennas to OEM’s for integration. The company formed in response to the exponential growth in global demand for wireless bandwidth. pureLiFi has grown its international customer base with more than 130 deployments of LiFi in over 24 countries. The firm has also secured international partnerships with organisations such as Cisco, Wipro and O2 Telefonica.

pureLIFi.com

Zero.1

Zero.1 is a Hardware and Software provider specialising in Optical Camera Communication founded in 2016. Through its unique driver, any LED can become compatible, a simple app downloadable on the IOS and Android Store will allow cameras of mobiles devices to receive OCC signal, Zero.1 provides Cloud and services associated such as but not limited to, Indoor positioning system, localisation based services, geolocalised information’s, crowd management and data analytics etc.

zero1.zone

du

Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (du) is a vibrant and multiple award-winning telecommunications service provider in the United Arab Emirates serving 9 million individual customers with its mobile, fixed-line, broadband internet, and Home services over its 4G LTE network. du also caters to over 100,000 UAE businesses with its vast range of ICT and managed services.

du.ae/personal

Velmenni

Velmenni has been working on LiFi Technology for the past 5 years. It has achieved multiple research and development milestones within Optical Wireless Communication including the development of the Optical Wireless Mesh Network. Today, Velmenni’s main focus is on the optimisation of speed, efficiency and seamless connectivity within the LiFi domain. Having held successful runs of LiFi technology in multiple locations, we’re presently conducting pilot projects to utilise bidirectional Light Communication in diverse industrial conditions. The goal remains to integrate LiFi and Wi-Fi to create impeccable, efficient and productive networks.

velmenni.com

Lucibel

LUCIBEL is an innovative French group that designs and manufactures in France new generation LED lighting products and solutions. LUCIBEL is also a pioneer in the development and marketing of LiFi, a light internet access solution co-developed with its pureLiFi partner in Scotland.

lucibel.io

LiFi Research & Development Centre (LiFi R&D Centre)

The LiFi R&D Centre translates internationally leading fundamental research to high technology readiness levels and conducts research in collaboration with, and on behalf of the industry. It aims to accelerate society’s adoption of LiFi and emerging wireless technology through engagement with major industrial partners, to fully harness the commercial and innovative potential of LiFi, and to help establish a major new LiFi industry. The LiFi R&D Centre includes 40 researchers including three academics.

lifi-centre.com

IMT

Institut Mines-Télécom is a public institution dedicated to higher education and research for innovation in the fields of engineering and digital technology. Always tuned in to the economic world, it combines high academic and scientific legitimacy with close business relations and a unique positioning in 3 major transformations of the 21st century: Digital Affairs, Energy and Ecology, and Industry. Its training and research for innovation are conducted in the Mines and Télécom Graduate Schools under the supervision of the Minister for Industry and Electronic Communications, in two subsidiaries and in institutions that are associate partners or under contract. Institut Mines-Télécom is a founding member of the Industry of the Future Alliance. It has two Carnot labels for the quality of its research partnerships. Every year, around one hundred startup companies leave its incubators.

imt.fr

About Liberty Global

Liberty Global (NASDAQ: LBTYA, LBTYB and LBTYK) is the world’s largest international TV and broadband company, with operations in 10 European countries under the consumer brands Virgin Media, Unitymedia, Telenet and UPC. They invest in the infrastructure and digital platforms that empower our customers to make the most of the video, internet and communications revolution. Their substantial scale and commitment to innovation enable us to develop market-leading products delivered through next-generation networks that connect 21 million customers subscribing to 45 million TV, broadband internet and telephony services. We also serve 6 million mobile subscribers and offer Wi-Fi service through 12 million access points across our footprint.

In addition, Liberty Global owns 50% of VodafoneZiggo, a joint venture in the Netherlands with 4 million customers subscribing to 10 million fixed-line and 5 million mobile services, as well as significant investments in ITV, All3Media, ITI Neovision, Casa Systems, LionsGate, the Formula E racing series and several regional sports networks.

libertyglobal.com

CEA Leti

Leti, a technology research institute at CEA Tech, pioneers micro and nanotechnologies, tailoring differentiating applicative solutions that ensure competitiveness in a wide range of markets. Leti developed a high-speed bi-directional LiFi solution successfully transferred to Luciom, where each LED lamp can connect up to 15 users to the Internet. Leti is also conducting cutting-edge research on LED sources combined with advanced wireless communication processing targeting very high throughput LiFi systems.

leti-cea.com/cea-tech/leti/english

Li-Fi Conference 2022

The next Li-Fi Conference is coming up on the 28th of June 2022 between 10 am and 4.30 pm CET.

It is interesting to realise that lights that illuminate offices, homes, cars, factories, our streets and more locations also can connect us to data and hence power the growing demand for connectivity and speed.

At this conference professionals from all over the globe will gather together in order to share applications, ideas, new developments and ways to integrate Li-Fi in services, both for consumers and professionals.

This conference will be held Live and Online. The venue will be the High Tech Campus 1, The Strip 5656 AE Eindhoven The Netherlands.

Online tickets can be bought at the following link:

https://tikcit.com/register/61e002336d7fc4b6745cab83/

What is LiFi?

LiFi, also known as "Light Fidelity" is a wireless optical networking technology, which uses light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to transmit data. In 2011, professor Harald Haas made a LiFi demonstration at the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Global Talk on Visible Light Communication (VLC).

VLC uses light as a medium to deliver high-speed communication like Wi-Fi and complies with the IEEE standard IEEE 802.15.7. The IEEE 802.15.7 is a high-speed, bidirectional, and fully networked wireless communication technology-based standard similar to Wi-Fi's IEEE 802.11.

How does LiFi work?

LiFi is a high speed, bidirectional, and fully networked wireless communication of data using light. LiFi constitutes of several light bulbs that form a wireless network.

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.

LiFi Benefits

The primary benefits of LiFi 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 the small coverage area of LiFi 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.

Credit to Oledcomm

LiFi Applications

LiFi can be used for so many applications and the list is increasing every year. You can read our updated list of Li-Fi applications at the following link:

https://www.lifitn.com/blog/2021/2/13/top-30-li-fi-applications-updated-list-including-potential-applications

Credit to pureLiFi

In conclusion, if you are also interested to hear more information about the OWNII Coin or enquire about LiFi devices such as the LiFiMax and Trulifi, 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 LiFi technology, subscribe to our newsletter. Don’t forget to subscribe to our social media accounts. You can also join our Telegram group about LiFi technology on this link:

https://t.me/joinchat/FMzOmsEKyJFrU6Af

Li-Fi Conference 2021 - Recap Part 10 - Optical Wireless As A New Comfort For Telecom? A Regulator's Perspective

Table of Contents

Li-Fi Conference 2021 - Recap Part 10 - Optical Wireless As A New Comfort For Telecom? A Regulator’s Perspective

Li-Fi Conference 2021

In our last article from our ONLINE Li-Fi Conference 2021 recap series, we discussed the duo presentation on Fully Leveraging LiFi Capabilities Through Enhanced Integration With 5G Core And Services delivered by Maximilian Riegel from Nokia. The conference was organised by the Jakajima, the global High Tech Conference organiser, and the Light Communications Alliance.

Jakajima, Matchmaker for Innovators in the high tech industry, organises many events, ranging from LiFi Technology industry trends, 3D Printing to the Internet of Things, from Unmanned Cargo Aircraft to Health Tech, from 4D Printing to Photonics and from Vertical Farming to Sustainable Materials.

The online Li-Fi Conference included live presentations from researchers, executives and industry specialists from pureLiFi, Nokia, Signify, Orange, Radiocommunications Agency Netherlands, Velmenni, OLEDCOMM, HomeGrid Forum and Weidmüller Deutschland.

In this last article recap series, we will talk about the presentation on Optical Wireless As A New Comfort For Telecom? A Regulator’s Perspective delivered by René Vroom from Agentschap Telecom. Before this, we will talk about Agentschap Telecom.

Agentschap Telecom

Agentschap Telecom is a Dutch government organisation that regulates and monitors the use of radio frequencies in the Netherlands. Telecom Agency is part of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate. The organisation is located in Groningen and Amersfoort.

The service draws up guidelines and issues licenses for the use of frequency space and also has a monitoring task here. The service also monitors the trade in electronic equipment, tapping, data retention and the Information Exchange of Underground Networks Act (WION). With regard to trade in electronic equipment, the agency is responsible for verifying that equipment complies with the obligations of the EMC Directive and the R&TTE Directive. In addition, the service investigates and handles fault reports from citizens and license holders in the field of EMC† The WION regulates the exchange of information between excavation contractors, clients and network operators when digging in the subsoil.

The service was founded in 1929 as the Radio Control Service of the Staatsbedrijf der PTT (RCD) with its head office in The Hague. The listening station was located in Nederhorst den Berg . In the mid-1970s, the government decided to reduce unemployment in the northern provinces by spreading government responsibilities. The PTT Department of Cable and Connections Directorate (DKV), later + Radio (DKRV), was therefore moved to Amersfoort and the RCD head office was moved to Groningen. In 1982 regional branches of the RCD were opened in Zwolle for the north of the Netherlands and in Eindhoven for the south of the Netherlands. Nederhorst den Berg became the location for the Central Netherlands.

The Radio Control Service had several tasks, but was particularly feared by radio pirates, who code-named the service "the white mice". From 1976 to 1981, listening posts of the Special Radio Service (BRD) were integrated into the RCD. In 1989, KSR ( Coastal and Ship Radio ) was added, with its headquarters at Capelle aan den IJssel. When the PTT was privatized, the RCD was split off and placed with the Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management and the name was changed to Operational Affairs Directorate, part of the General Directorate of Telecommunications and Post (HDTP). Later this name was changed to Rijksdienst voor Radiocommunicatie (RDR) and Telecom Division as part of the Transport, Public Works and Water Management Inspectorate (IVW). In July 2002, the service was transferred to the Ministry of Economic Affairs as an independent agency. In a reorganisation in 2005, they again opted for centralisation. Amersfoort now became the central location with Groningen as the head office. The local district offices in Zwolle, Eindhoven and Capelle aan den IJssel and the historic RCD fortress Nederhorst den Berg (NERA) were closed.

Agentschap Telecom is authorised to detect illegal broadcasts and to impose administrative fines. Much attention is paid to radio pirate broadcasts in the FM broadcast band. For the investigation, cars with radio direction finders are used and use is made of the nationwide measuring network of the Telecom Agency, which records the use of radio frequencies at all times. This proactive approach against radio pirates started with Operation Ether Flash in 2003. Previously, the agency only responded to complaints about interference. The fines for illegal use of FM broadcasting frequencies can amount to more than €15,000.

The above approach was evaluated until mid-2011, proved effective and was subsequently maintained. Most broadcasters without a valid license give up after a warning from the Telecom Agency. Previously (late 20th century) people got away with confiscation of the equipment and possibly everything attached to it, followed by a fine of a few hundred guilders. After that, the policy was made stricter to an immediate fine of €1300, which deterred some of the unlicensed channels. The government still thought this did not go far enough and wanted a system to permanently shut down almost all channels on this radio band.

Optical Wireless As A New Comfort For Telecom? A Regulator’s Perspective By René Vroom

René Vroom from Agentschap Telecom was the tenth and final presenter at the online Li-Fi Conference 2021. He discussed in his presentation the topic of Optical Wireless As A New Comfort For Telecom? A Regulator’s Perspective.

Below are some points discussed in this presentation.:

René Vroom started his presentation by saying the following:

“My view is of course a little bit different. We are a regulator and we are very much interested in optical wireless communications. So I will lead you through my presentations.” 

CONTENT

“As a regulator, I will tell you a little bit about a handful of telecom, the Delta radio communications agency. I will talk about digitalization and developments in telecom, optical wireless for us with this new spectrum new technology and some conclusive reflections."

Agentschap Telecom

”AGENTSCHAP TELECOM for a safely connected Netherlands, we are a regulator and an authority on the digital infrastructure in the Netherlands and part of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and climate policy. And our mission is to improve trust in IoT and communication network devices in electronic applications. Roughly 400 employees in four areas and I will lead you in a few seconds through those four areas. It's about spectrum. We are doing regulating and law enforcement on Spectrum infrastructure, networking services, devices and IoT. We are an organisation like Ofcom in the UK or the Bundesnetzagentur in Germany or FCC in the United States. Out of these slides in the left box, you will find international harmonisation of all spectrum and that is of course also important for 5g Wi-Fi etc and we will come back later on how it will reflect to LIFI infrastructure and going to the right box, devices and IoT. We are dealing with some standardisation organisations, EU market access equipment, electromagnetic compatibility and EMF etc. So for us, it's important that whatever is going on through the market it is reliable, safe and secure.” 

NL & digital connectivity

“About Holland very shortly, digital connectivity we see it from a nice to have to a must have digital connectivity leads to economic growth and social welfare and also with the COVID pandemic we have seen how important it is that we have digital connectivity everywhere. But we also expect quite some leverage effects from digital connectivity into other sectors like the agricultural logistics and so on. If you see here the DESI index from Europe, you can see the evidence from Europe. When it comes to connectivity, human capital use of Internet services integration of digital technology and digital public service in a country the DESI for Europe is roughly 52 and in Holland, we are in good shape with Denmark, Sweden and Finland on 70, 68 Something like that.”

Strategic developments

“Strategic developments which we see upcoming are still and it is not a surprise an increase in communication data transmission ongoing. For us as a regulator, we are very much busy on the 5G rollout ongoing we are thinking about beyond 5g and 6G is upcoming. But we see still and that is why we are so interested in new technology like LIFI radio spectrum is very much occupied and solutions are looked for. And we are looking at them in three different areas. One is to use the existing spectrum more dynamic and sharing. The other one is creating a higher efficiency on accessing existing spectrum with new technologies like 5G And you can think about edge computing and slicing. And the third option we are looking for is complete new technology on the new spectrum. And then we are coming to back to optical wireless communication. So that's the reason why we are interested in optical wireless communication. But also it's important that social impacts on telecom are becoming more and more important. And then you have to think about sustainability, health, privacy and data integrity and cybersecurity. And of course, as a country, we are not loosely coupled with the rest of the world and extremely important for us is the Europe digital strategy, which you can see here in the left box. And I will just shortly touch on the graph to the REITsright. You can see this is the retail mobile data used in Holland is going up from 200 billion in 2016, up to 1 trillion megabytes in 2020. So it's five times more in four years. And it's important also to notice that the main part is still used inside offices or inside buildings or inside houses. And then, of course, LIFI and I come back to that later is an option to use to accommodate this data transmission.”

Optical Wireless Communications (OWC)

“Optical wireless communication, we did a study already in 2018 on this together with the Stratics and the ICT of Technical University and basically, we have this spend up to two different basic options, LIFI as official light communication and beam stay at infrared light communication. You can see over to the right, you can see the blue field sea base which is LIFI and the other one is the red ones beams, the base stations pencil beams, which is, for example, sorry the icon in the red wall in the picture to the right. Also, it was already mentioned by some other speakers there is free space optics. The conclusions of that report are that optical wireless is maturing and may help relieve spectrum scarcity. And the next one is LIFI and certain beams like the infrared can become a potential for indoor short-range digital connectivity with extreme low latency and it might become also a complementary and or an alternative to RF like or eg on Wi-Fi. In the bottom right, you see a spectrum very much simplified. The radio spectrum is very much occupied. And as I said already in my intro, infrared invisible is hardly used for communication. So, there are I think up to 2600 times more spectrum available frequencies available than in the whole radio spectrum.”

Overview of issues

“We created in this report, and it is available with a link which I can send later on an overview of the issues which need to be solved or addressed. Going to the left, you see it's about access to the site and the backhaul on-site, you have to think about power supply, optical fibres. And this whole backhaul needs to be in place to make use of the LIFI qualities. In the middle, you'll see also the access points, where do you place them on the ceilings on the walls? How will you locate them? Will it be light or will it be a combination or will be separated this kind of issues needs to be solved? And then, of course, the quality of the optical link which you see more to the right then you have to think about is it better or is it complimentary? And we have already taken that conclusion at least you have to think about what is on Wi-Fi Bluetooth, 5G fixed what is already there? And how will these be fixed that and then, of course, there should be no interference with other communication devices. It should now also when you move it, should not immediately lose the signal or block the signal. And when it comes to safety and security, It's it's about eye and skin safety and also all data integrity and data security and the use of devices. Then I go to the complete right of this table, it's about interoperability and standardisation. So the protocols that authentication, the firmware everything have to be in place in the same study.” 

OWC modelling stakeholders

“We have talked and also other speakers have talked about the ecosystem. And in this study, we have created a picture of the ecosystem, you see power, urgency and legitimacy. Legitimacy distributes at least the regulation part. Power is the ones who can create and Urgency is the one who can use it and buy it. And on the regulation side, it's about the standards, the rules and the regulations and the law enforcement. And of course, it’s important to see what is in the middle of those three circles. And then you'll see the companies or organisations that are important and overlapping are the building owners and the building management, the standardisation organisations, manufacturers, the access point manufacturers and the branch organisations, think about schools, hospitals, airline industries, conferences and so on. And again, we have to think about how we can get the data bandwidth also in houses and in offices and then we are coming back to the building owners and the building management.”

OWC regulations

“There are many regulations on equipment and devices in general, but coming to spectrum, this is above 300 gigahertz and we expect it to be non-regulated and or licenced exempt. The ITU will consider normally not up to or higher than 3000 gigahertz. So, that is, let's say kind of freedom books. But there is also radio equipment directive in Europe. And then you have to think about EMF, so the protection on health and ICNIRP electromagnetic compatibility, the efficient use of frequencies, and also as from 2024 onwards, cybersecurity. This radio equipment directive is only valid when the optical wireless devices include RF modules, eg for on and off switching or location or any other reasons. The EMC directive is here already right now for optical wireless and then you have, of course, General Product Safety and then condition on light density and eye safety and the low voltage directive. So, these kinds of things are to be considered and are important to check with also when you're producing these products.”

NL positively engaged in development OWC

“In the Netherlands, we are positively engaged in the development of optical wireless. In general, we have in Holland, the so-called Triple Helix model. And in this case, we are working very much together with the technical universities of Eindhoven centre, Delft and other universities and companies. In general, we have a wide ecosystem of field labs, and we are also able to create sandboxes and test licences on Spectrum. More specific the middle ones, photonics and light technology have become in Holland One of the national key technologies in the top sectors for knowledge and innovation. The government has invested in photonics like for example, in the photon Delta consortium, smart photonics as a company and also in a free Consortium, which is run by the TCU Technical University of Delft. So we have really invested money in this because we think this complete development should not be looked only upon the last part. So LIFI, with also the fibre, but also the integrated circuits which are then at the end complete chain of communication lines. So as our radio communications agency, we did a study on optical wireless in 2017. We did an international workshop, we created an ITU report in 2018. And we took the initiative for recommendation in ITU R in 2019. In conjunction with ITU t and I triple E. And last but not least, we have become members of the EU cost. New focus on the EU network on future generation optical wireless communications technologies. And also here together with the University of Eindhoven, John Paulina, who is also working with Signify, we are heading up for creating more usage of optical wireless.”

Conclusive reflections on OWC

“The benefits from the full potential of optical wireless or high-speed access network is required and maybe not the technique is the bottleneck anymore or soon, but the way the data gets there. So, an in-building fixed-wired backhaul is an essential link in the complete optical wireless solution and it should be installed as we are also installing water pipes, gas pipes and electricity in houses. For as far as we can see, optical wireless is relatively safe, there are some points of attention, for example, on lights, eyes, safety, and light density, but needs to be addressed in a good way. And further on. The interoperability between products in the optical wireless community needs to be guaranteed, or at least we would prefer that. But also the compatibility with other already deployed communication technologies like Wi-Fi and 5G. So whether optical will become successful depends on economies of scale, and the market picking up. For us, it's important that attention is paid to public interests like safety and health, that it is not disturbing and not interfering or creating interference with other devices. And cybersecurity is becoming more and more important. So we will look upon that one, as a regulator. Energy consumption is already mentioned, but that's an European policy. So take that into account. And last but not least interoperability and centralisation are extremely important.”

“So to conclude, we cannot innovate frequencies but we can innovate the way we use them. That's what we say. Thank you for your attention”.

You can also watch the full video presentation on the following YouTube link from Jakajima YouTube channel.

Li-Fi Conference 2022

The next Li-Fi Conference is coming up on the 28th of June 2022 between 10 am and 4.30 pm CET.

It is interesting to realise that lights that illuminate offices, homes, cars, factories, our streets and more locations also can connect us to data and hence power the growing demand for connectivity and speed.

At this conference professionals from all over the globe will gather together in order to share applications, ideas, new developments and ways to integrate Li-Fi in services, both for consumers and professionals.

This conference will be held Live and Online. The venue will be the High Tech Campus 1, The Strip 5656 AE Eindhoven The Netherlands.

Online tickets can be bought at the following link:

https://tikcit.com/register/61e002336d7fc4b6745cab83/

What is LiFi?

LiFi, also known as "Light Fidelity" is a wireless optical networking technology, which uses light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to transmit data. In 2011, professor Harald Haas made a LiFi demonstration at the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Global Talk on Visible Light Communication (VLC).

VLC uses light as a medium to deliver high-speed communication like Wi-Fi and complies with the IEEE standard IEEE 802.15.7. The IEEE 802.15.7 is a high-speed, bidirectional, and fully networked wireless communication technology-based standard similar to Wi-Fi's IEEE 802.11.

How does LiFi work?

LiFi is a high speed, bidirectional, and fully networked wireless communication of data using light. LiFi constitutes of several light bulbs that form a wireless network.

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.

LiFi Benefits

The primary benefits of LiFi 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 the small coverage area of LiFi 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.

Credit to Oledcomm

LiFi Applications

LiFi can be used for so many applications and the list is increasing every year. You can read our updated list of Li-Fi applications at the following link:

https://www.lifitn.com/blog/2021/2/13/top-30-li-fi-applications-updated-list-including-potential-applications

Credit to pureLiFi

In conclusion, if you are also interested to hear more information about the OWNII Coin or enquire about LiFi devices such as the LiFiMax and Trulifi, 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 LiFi technology, subscribe to our newsletter. Don’t forget to subscribe to our social media accounts. You can also join our Telegram group about LiFi technology on this link:

https://t.me/joinchat/FMzOmsEKyJFrU6Af

Li-Fi Conference 2021 - Recap Part 9 - Fully Leveraging LiFi Capabilities Through Enhanced Integration With 5G Core And Services

Table of Contents

Li-Fi Conference 2021 - Recap Part 9 - Fully Leveraging LiFi Capabilities Through Enhanced Integration With 5G Core And Services

Li-Fi Conference 2021

In our last article from our ONLINE Li-Fi Conference 2021 recap series, we discussed the duo presentation on LiFi At The Heart Of Future Intelligent Communications Networks delivered by Sylvain Leroux, FoodTech & Light Communications Director, Orange and Micheline Perrufel, Researcher/Project manager Innovation, Orange. The conference was organised by the Jakajima, the global High Tech Conference organiser, and the Light Communications Alliance.

Jakajima, Matchmaker for Innovators in the high tech industry, organises many events, ranging from LiFi Technology industry trends, 3D Printing to the Internet of Things, from Unmanned Cargo Aircraft to Health Tech, from 4D Printing to Photonics and from Vertical Farming to Sustainable Materials.

The online Li-Fi Conference included live presentations from researchers, executives and industry specialists from pureLiFi, Nokia, Signify, Orange, Radiocommunications Agency Netherlands, Velmenni, OLEDCOMM, HomeGrid Forum and Weidmüller Deutschland.

In another article recap series, we will talk about the presentation on Fully Leveraging LiFi Capabilities Through Enhanced Integration With 5G Core And Services delivered by Maximilian Riegel from Nokia. Before this, we will talk about Nokia.

Nokia

Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia; stylized as NOKIA) is a Finnish multinational telecommunications, information technology, and consumer electronics company, founded in 1865. Nokia's main headquarters are in Espoo, Finland, in the greater Helsinki metropolitan area, but the company's actual roots are in the Tampere region of Pirkanmaa. In 2020, Nokia employed approximately 92,000 people across over 100 countries, did business in more than 130 countries, and reported annual revenues of around €23 billion. Nokia is a public limited company listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange. It is the world's 415th-largest company measured by 2016 revenues according to the Fortune Global 500, having peaked at 85th place in 2009. It is a component of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index.

The company has operated in various industries over the past 150 years. It was founded as a pulp mill and had long been associated with rubber and cables, but since the 1990s has focused on large-scale telecommunications infrastructure, technology development, and licensing. Nokia made significant contributions to the mobile telephony industry, assisting in the development of the GSM, 3G, and LTE standards. For a decade beginning in 1998, Nokia was the largest worldwide vendor of mobile phones and smartphones. In the later 2000s, however, Nokia suffered from a series of poor management decisions, and soon saw its share of the mobile phone market drop sharply.

After a partnership with Microsoft and Nokia's subsequent market struggles,Microsoft bought its mobile phone business, creating Microsoft Mobile as its successor in 2014. After the sale, Nokia began to focus more on its telecommunications infrastructure business and on Internet of things technologies, marked by the divestiture of its Here mapping division and the acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent, including its Bell Labs research organization. The company then also experimented with virtual reality and digital health, the latter through the purchase of Withings. The Nokia brand returned to the mobile and smartphone market in 2016 through a licensing arrangement with HMD Global. Nokia continues to be a major patent licensor for most large mobile phone vendors. As of 2018, Nokia is the world's third-largest network equipment manufacturer.

The company was viewed with national pride by Finns, as its mobile phone business made it by far the largest worldwide company and brand from Finland.

Fully Leveraging LiFi Capabilities Through Enhanced Integration With 5G Core And Services By Maximilian Riegel

Maximilian Riegel from Nokia, was the ninth presenter at the online Li-Fi Conference 2021. He discussed in his presentation the topic of Fully Leveraging LiFi Capabilities Through Enhanced Integration With 5G Core And Services.

Maximilian Riegel received his Dipl.-Ing. degree in Electrical Engineering from TU Munich, Germany and is currently responsible for IEEE & Wi-Fi standardization within Nokia. He participies in IEEE 802 and other Wi-Fi related standardization for more than 15 years and led the development of IEEE 802.1CF-2019 specification. He was NWG vice chair in the WiMAX Forum, led the Ethernet over cellular work in IETF 16ng WG, and chaired the OmniRAN SG/TG activities in IEEE 802. He regularly acts as lecturer for Wi-Fi and as speaker at technical conferences. Formerly, he held R&D management positions within Siemens Communications and Philips Communication Industry.

Below are some points discussed about Fully Leveraging LiFi Capabilities Through Enhanced Integration:

Maximilian Riegel started his presentation by saying the following:

“What we are currently in is in the middle of a fourth industrial revolution, driven by the move of the industry to digitisation and optimise control. So, deploying IT technology to get production more enhanced, and really investing a huge amount of money now in enhancing industrial production capabilities and methods.” 

Industry 4.0 use cases enabled by 3GPP 5G evolution

“And we see that this opens a new market. And it's not only opening a new market, it's already driving the standardisation and the development and the whole idea of 5G and the evolution of 5G, which started initially from doing much better Broadband now is going into machine type communication, ultra-light low latency communication techniques, enhancements, which are very important for control in factories, machineries, all this IoT stuff, industrial IoT stuff, where nowadays, we are not talking about the gigabits, but more about the milliseconds. And that's what's critical."

Challenging connectivity options to address Industry 4.0 needs

”And where this industry 4.0 needs are really putting a burden on our communication technologies. And I have here on the right side, a table with different applications and a little bit of characterization of what's needed in terms of communication capabilities. If you're doing monitoring, if you're just collecting data, then yes, you are getting a huge amount of data. But what's not so critical is the delay. And it's also not so critical. When a bit is transferred incorrectly, you have always the possibility to retransmit. So that's where you can do a huge amount of pipe data without high precision transmission capabilities, it's getting a little bit more challenging when you're doing starting to control equipment like autonomous robots, where you may have to go down to some transmission capabilities challenging and where it stand finally, really starting to become challenging if you're doing modern things like augmented reality, where short delays are extremely important. People are really becoming seasick when there's too much delay. And we're we have also another way, where reliability is going up orders of magnitudes when doing robotic control, or when sitting with telecommunications or communications in control loops, extreme time-critical control loops when systems have to provide delay times millisecond or below a millisecond. That's where our technology our wireless technology currently has difficulties where the industry currently is doing. Wire, as you see it on the left side, but yeah, wire is excellent transmission capabilities, but has challenged in mobility flexibility, also in the economics, when setting up wire.” 

Connectivity performance comparison in an industrial environment

“And what we did is a little bit of comparison, where are the different technologies, where are different standards located when you're comparing latency and reliability and I have a figure here showing Ethernet 4G/5G, ci and Wi-Fi. And what you see is Ethernet is extremely low delay, up to extremely high reliability. And when our doing our most used radio technology, meanwhile was 4G/5G. We are coming down in the range of 20 milliseconds to 10 milliseconds. That's something we can do. But what's really desired and you have seen the applications is we have to go even shorter delays at high reliability at much lower transmission delays. And the assumption is just from the physics, LIFI could fill us, could provide us solutions, which are really suited for this industrial IoT, industrial control loaded low latency. Something going in that direction, we would like to have a wire but without a wire from transmission capabilities. So that's where LIFI could fit in.”

How to integrate LiFi into 5G?

“Now, LIFI into 5G. LIFI into 5G provides a comprehensive environment for doing complex communications of various applications. And what we have to think about is now we have to get LIFI into this overall 5G architecture.”

5G Architecture: Reference Point Representation

“5G architecture is mainly dominated or created, focused around session control, quality of service control, which provides a huge complexity. The 5G architecture has also the capabilities to be completely implemented in software. So it's not done this hardware functional architecture, it's functional architecture, where functional units are interoperating not saying anything about implementation. And when thinking about the integration of LIFI, we have to think about how we are getting LIFI on this end through N2 and N3 interfaces. We're currently with the 5G run, that's where we have to think about.”

5G QoS model to provide fine-grain service differentiation

“Why we are doing it as 5G provides the QoS model, the QoS control the need for industrial control. So 5G has an extremely comprehensive, sophisticated QoS model with a fine grain control capability. And 5G has the technology to do multiple different QoS flows on a common infrastructure, things really need it for industry, industrial applications and the industry 4.0 in the broad scope, if you'd like to do everything required in this industrial 4.0 area, you need a universal system, which has a huge variety of doing it.” 

LiFi integration through adoption of 3GPP WLAN (Wi-Fi) integration model

“So the first approach to adoption to do the inclusion of LIFI into 5G would be oh, there is a nice model for Wi-Fi. Yeah, let's use the Wi-Fi model, we are also having a standardisation approach where we are getting a Wi-Fi or 802.11 variant with light, straightforward. And that would be the shortest path together into integration. This Wi-Fi integration model, the primary Wi-Fi integration model currently is based on an N3 IWF gateway. Now technically speaking, that's gateway and VPN gateway setting up an IPsec tunnel between the 5G core system and wireless LAN user equipment tunnelling the data through and tunnelling also signalling through and this Wi-Fi model, that's currently Wi-Fi model. This VPN connectivity is highly flexible in the deployment of what's needed currently for Wi-Fi. It fulfils all the security requirements. But we're now going into we like to do pure essence, stream handling and something like that. And we like to have the lowest delay, then it's becoming really tricky because a VPN tunnel always adds additional delays.” 

Issues of the 3GPP WLAN integration model for LiFi

“So this is what we should keep in mind when doing Wi-Fi, LIFI integration into N3 or switching up to 5G core. The first thing is to consider what's Wi-Fi and what is LIFI. And that's the difference, LIFI isn't just a Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi is used as a huge transfer capability, offloading internet traffic in the local area. So it's an auxiliary interface to a primary switch up Key radio interface where you can just take off leverage cheaper channel when being in the local area. The terminals are usually dual-mode, they have all the 5g signalling, they have different signalling paths and they have no need for doing really a comprehensive QoS management. Now, when you have seen what we are thinking about LIFI, we see a new kind of transmission capability for wireless communication. No, a 5G radio is not just an alternative solution. LIFI is a new kind of quality. So, it's not necessary that there is a 5G radio interface in all LIFI interfaces. And we also expect that the LIFI interface devices are not such mobile, because LIFI cells are very small, so mostly stationary. So we have to think about a single-mode LIFI terminal. But we need a very comprehensive QoS management. So we have really to have access to the lower layer data not being encrypted on our IPsec tunnel where all service differentiation is really becoming challenging. And what we see is that the Wi-Fi integration model does not provide all this 5G QoS model and control. Only a small subset of 5G QoS can be supported in Wi-Fi, and we have the issue of the IPsec tunnel. So we need a kind of better integration model direct attachment, less overhead, less protocol overhead. And in particular link-layer integrations that we have access to the data streams.”

The 'better' integration model for LiFi

“And such a model already exists. But it's not fully out or deployed for LIFI. But it's probably a hint on how to proceed. There is a definition of a trusted wireless LAN interworking function, which is terminating N2 to N3 interfaces into a non three GPP technology, not demanding the IPsec tunnel doing and allowing for all the functional integration, having link-layer access to the user plane, maybe support local mobility, which is important in the LIFI area with the small coverage zones. And that's the proposal here for going forward when thinking about LIFI, thinking about a more core s focused integration model than we currently have for LIFI and working on further enhancements to get this model adopted for LIFI but also LIFI addressing the need of industry 4.0 that means providing high reliability, low latency communication, that may also work a little already with the standard coming out of 802.11bb by avoiding congestion and allowing a higher control.”

Summary and conclusion

“And then I'm coming to the end of my presentation but I've shown 5G is a system that really serves the needs of industry 4.0 for all this critical communication. In particular, 5G provides the control and configuration capabilities that are needed in industrial deployments. Frequently, configuration has to be adopted. What we also discovered or what we found is that there is a technology gap between wired and wireless. And we are looking forward to a domain where LIFI could excel. But finally, to deploy LIFI in this industrial environment, we see the need for better integration. And we see the need for leveraging or basing it on a different approach than what we have currently on Wi-Fi. And yeah what's asked for is further research standardisation to get this LIFI deployment really working. Currently, we have just the hints of the framework, but there are so many technologies still missing to get it working.”

You can also watch the full video presentation on the following YouTube link from Jakajima YouTube channel.

Li-Fi Conference 2022

The next Li-Fi Conference is coming up on the 28th of June 2022 between 10 am and 4.30 pm CET.

It is interesting to realise that lights that illuminate offices, homes, cars, factories, our streets and more locations also can connect us to data and hence power the growing demand for connectivity and speed.

At this conference professionals from all over the globe will gather together in order to share applications, ideas, new developments and ways to integrate Li-Fi in services, both for consumers and professionals.

This conference will be held Live and Online. The venue will be the High Tech Campus 1, The Strip 5656 AE Eindhoven The Netherlands.

Online tickets can be bought at the following link:

https://tikcit.com/register/61e002336d7fc4b6745cab83/

What is LiFi?

LiFi, also known as "Light Fidelity" is a wireless optical networking technology, which uses light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to transmit data. In 2011, professor Harald Haas made a LiFi demonstration at the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Global Talk on Visible Light Communication (VLC).

VLC uses light as a medium to deliver high-speed communication like Wi-Fi and complies with the IEEE standard IEEE 802.15.7. The IEEE 802.15.7 is a high-speed, bidirectional, and fully networked wireless communication technology-based standard similar to Wi-Fi's IEEE 802.11.

How does LiFi work?

LiFi is a high speed, bidirectional, and fully networked wireless communication of data using light. LiFi constitutes of several light bulbs that form a wireless network.

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.

LiFi Benefits

The primary benefits of LiFi 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 the small coverage area of LiFi 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.

Credit to Oledcomm

LiFi Applications

LiFi can be used for so many applications and the list is increasing every year. You can read our updated list of Li-Fi applications at the following link:

https://www.lifitn.com/blog/2021/2/13/top-30-li-fi-applications-updated-list-including-potential-applications

Credit to pureLiFi

In conclusion, if you are also interested to hear more information about the OWNII Coin or enquire about LiFi devices such as the LiFiMax and Trulifi, 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 LiFi technology, subscribe to our newsletter. Don’t forget to subscribe to our social media accounts. You can also join our Telegram group about LiFi technology on this link:

https://t.me/joinchat/FMzOmsEKyJFrU6Af

Li-Fi Conference 2021 - Recap Part 8 - LiFi At The Heart Of Future Intelligent Communications Networks

Table of Contents

Li-Fi Conference 2021 - Recap Part 8 - LiFi At The Heart Of Future Intelligent Communications Networks

Li-Fi Conference 2021

In our last article from our ONLINE Li-Fi Conference 2021 recap series, we discussed the presentation on “Light Communication As A Part Of 5G And Beyond” delivered by Deepak Solanki from Velmenni. The conference was organised by the Jakajima, the global High Tech Conference organiser, and the Light Communications Alliance.

Jakajima, Matchmaker for Innovators in the high tech industry, organises many events, ranging from LiFi Technology industry trends, 3D Printing to the Internet of Things, from Unmanned Cargo Aircraft to Health Tech, from 4D Printing to Photonics and from Vertical Farming to Sustainable Materials.

The online Li-Fi Conference included live presentations from researchers, executives and industry specialists from pureLiFi, Nokia, Signify, Orange, Radiocommunications Agency Netherlands, Velmenni, OLEDCOMM, HomeGrid Forum and Weidmüller Deutschland.

In another article recap series, we will talk about the duo presentation on LiFi At The Heart Of Future Intelligent Communications Networks delivered by Sylvain Leroux, FoodTech & Light Communications Director, Orange and Micheline Perrufel, Researcher/Project manager Innovation, Orange. Before this, we will talk about Orange Telecommunications.

Orange

Orange S.A., rebranded as Orange, formerly France Télécom S.A., stylized as France telecom, is a French multinational telecommunications corporation. It has 266 million customers worldwide and employs 89,000 people in France, and 59,000 elsewhere. It is the 11th largest mobile network operator in the world and the 4th largest in Europe after Vodafone, Telefónica, and Deutsche Telekom. In 2015, the group had a revenue of €40 billion. The company's head office is located in the 15th arrondissement of Paris.

Orange has been the company's main brand for mobile, landline, internet and Internet Protocol television (IPTV) services since 2006. It originated in 1994 when Hutchison Whampoa acquired a controlling stake in Microtel Communications during the early 1990s and rebranded it as "Orange". It became a subsidiary of Mannesmann in 1999 and was acquired by France Télécom in 2000. The company was rebranded as Orange on 1 July 2013.

Orange is also a leading provider of global IT and telecommunication services to multinational companies, under the brand Orange Business Services. In December 2019, the Group presented its new "Engage 2025" strategic plan, which, guided by social and environmental accountability, aims to reinvent its operator model. While accelerating in growth areas and placing data and AI at the heart of its innovation model, the Group will be an attractive and responsible employer, adapted to emerging professions.

LiFi At The Heart Of Future Intelligent Communications Networks Delivered By Sylvain Leroux and Micheline Perrufel

Sylvain Leroux, FoodTech & Light Communications Director, Orange and Micheline Perrufel, Researcher/Project manager Innovation, Orange, were the eighth presenters at the online Li-Fi Conference 2021. He discussed in his presentation the topic of Light Communication As A Part Of 5G And Beyond.

Sylvain Leroux is a seasoned Marketing and communication professional with over 20 years of knowledge and experience in the telecom/internet industry from strategy in complex ecosystems, to operational project management for one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators. He currently works on IoT Program (B2B & B2B2C).

He previously worked as Strategy of Services & Partnerships Marketing Manager focusing on change management, digital transformation and innovation. His mission was about to structure or manage game changing partners / ecosystems / services.

Micheline Perrufel is currently Research Engineer and Innovation Project Manager at Orange Labs. She supports digital innovation by deploying light communication technology in addition to radio and ultrasound technologies. Her role also involves in responding to the new expectations of business and private customers with simple, ethical and environmentally friendly solutions. She also leads in the preparation of new user interaction services based on Beacon, LIFI, NFC, Lora technologies...using UCI (User Centric Innovation) design Thinking methods.

Below are some points discussed about LiFi At The Heart Of Future Intelligent Communications Networks:

Sylvain Leroux started the presentation by saying the following:

“My name is Sylvain Leroux and I'm working at Orange Innovation. and I'm working on different innovation programmes such as light communication and I'm working in pairs with Micheline who is also part of Orange innovation. So, today I'm happy to talk with you and to talk about future intelligence communication networks. And why it really matters on the chair of intelligent communication networks.”. 

“We have reached a very symbolic tipping point four years ago, as we get more objects that were connected on the earth, rather than human beings, approximately more than 8 billion of connected objects on Earth".

Connected devices sold in 2020 in the world

”And we could see that the connected devices market also has grown very fast. Thanks to different connectivity, and new technology arriving on the market, you could see an interesting point here is that all of them are growing very fast.” 

Volume of data/information created, captured, copied, and consumed worldwide from 2010 to 2024 (in zettabytes)

“Connected devices are booming, but also the volume of consumer data is growing very, very fast. And the interesting thing that you can see on this chart,the consumption of data will be multiplying by two and the question is how can we face this explosion of data consumption. So, we know that there is currently a very big pressure on the availability of the radio spectrum. And this is why we are looking for some alternatives on the optical spectrum.”

LIMITS OF EACH TECHNOLOGY

“As we are experts on this field because we run between networks, from space to the sea to your living room. But you know that edge technology has its own benefits but its own limits and you have various possible natures such as security limits, electronics interference, places where you are and the material inside places we were talking previously about industry and the presence of metallic environment is very difficult for waves for example, we know that there is no unique solution regarding the different technologies and the combination of different technologies and complementary with the technology will be received in order to deliver the best experience and the best connectivity.”

Trends in global traffic and power usage of Wi-Fi access networks

“And to give you some examples, we are facing some issues regarding, for example, electrical consumption and you get the examples here of going on electrical consumption of Wi-Fi. And even if the gateways and the modems are becoming more energy efficient, we are facing the increasing number of actually increasing traffic on the modem and gateways that increase the consumption of electricity.”

Environmental certification: more and more buildings certified

“Another example is that we use applications on the building market, for example. So, this is a very good concept but if you're looking to the quality of connectivity that you could provide the new sound out for low enlisted windows for example, it's checking for new products just to give you a look on the figures with the new type of glazing, it could be the radio signal could be divided into two for example, that's a very interesting challenge for us to get new, because some people have buildings that to get the best of the connectivity inside this visit.” 

Future intelligent networks

“So, this is why we are approaching the future intelligent networks in order to combine different technology in order to have the best connectivity every time on every type of devices that I just told you previously revenue paradigm with richer devices are on the market during high speed connectivity, people ask for connectivity, they need real time, they want autonomous cars in the industry. We've also got cyber street and everyone wants to be connected from all three working for example or have the best connectivity in order to watch the Euro 2021. So, we have to think about the next generation of networks.” 

Mobile network evolution

“These new networks are also evolutive and the interesting thing that I wanted to point out to us today is the different generation of 5g. The 5g router chain is what we call 5g and we says it's an evolution of the existing technologies on the existing core networks and the new generation with the and living a universities out you used to hear a day today on the news all about the little surprising is what we call this 5g standalone as a will have a dedicated 5g core network”.

5G cHaracteristics

“So, this is the the existing frequencies that we are using for 5g most time around and this is within two years what you will see with the new 5g core networks of the 5g standalone and you could see that's very interesting because rich technology as its benefits in its own limits, and I will let you see the difference between indoor coverage throughput and it can be done with the with the 5g.”

Fiber complementary to 5G, Satellite, Wi-Fi & Light Connectivity

“Now fibre is in 2021, the basic connectivity network deployed by the telecom operator, it's very important for the Telco to deploy fibre and after the copper the fibre is deployed, why it's to offer to the customer big higher, big throughput, big speed and thanks to fibre, now, user can confirm data, can watch television and the fibre is a strategic vision for the Telco”.

Fiber FTTH deployment AND FTTH ARCHITECTURE

“Deploying fibre is very expensive. And to the Telco as a priority is to choose a good architecture to deploy the FTTH to the residential for example, little enterprise, the Telco choose architect to offer to the customer a signal with the fibre but a fibre share up to 65 customers by each fibre”. 

Fiber PON

“Today's fibre name, GPON, is deployed and offers the customers the possibility to have up to one gigabyte in download. Now today, the customers have the possibility to have a throughput up to one gigabyte by second in download. And, for example with orange, up to 20 up to 200 megabyte by second. In one year, we hope to begin to deploy a new architecture named XGPON. XGPON cost more expensive to deploy that can offer to the customers the possibility to have up to 10 gigabyte by second and it's very relevant to offer more speed, more throughput, more performance, for example, for use Wi-Fi and use on LIFI”.

Satellite complementary to 5G, Fiber, Wi-Fi & Light Connectivity

“Satellite data is also a priority now today for the Telco. In recent years, satellite connectivity has been offered to residential and also to enterprise when neither fibre or mobile network are present. Throughput with satellite is quite correct but look at the latency is very bad to have a good latency with the latency with satellite. And to use satellites, you have to buy and to keep an antenna and the specific books. And a new generation of satellite is coming but look at also as a throughput if it is better is also less good as the actual fibre of mobile network”.

Wi-Fi 6 (ax) & Wi-Fi 6E

“Now when we look at Wi-Fi, we see that Wi-Fi still is the best technology. It is Remarkable. Who has not already used the Wi-Fi in the world, the Wi-Fi is everywhere every time and as mobile networks Wi-Fi evolve technology and each decade as Wi-Fi proposes a new version. And each time, it's a new version that proposes more performance, more throughput and less latency. But now today's this year, we speak about the Wi-Fi 6E extended and so Wi-Fi 6E is associated with both 2.4 GHZ and 5GHz with less interference but also with 6GHz. We hope with this new frequency, we will have less interference with other technology as for example Bluetooth excetera”.

Light Connectivity

“But on the complementary of this access, light technology is complimentary as radio technology radiofrequency technology. And while we have no concrete information on the effective charge of the bandwidths by your institution in each country, we understand that the uses are more and more numerous. And it's time to exploit this bandwidth in the optical electromagnetic spectrum, especially with the LIFI and OCC but also with FA so it's also relevant and we begin to to speak about the FSO in the Telco.”

Light EQUIPMENTS

“Light equipments are many as their price are cheaper, and it's very also relevant for the Telco that they are not manufacturer, when we can propose a LIFI solution or OCC solution, we must make partnerships with different actors but we are not manufacturers, okay? We provide to the customers, the LAN access, the one access, but not the equipment. And a lot of arguments against at the beginning of the LIFI was that there were as they were no equipment compatible with Wi-Fi and with OCC. But if we remember, as the beginning of Wi-Fi. In 1999, there was no equipment directly compatible with Wi-Fi. And as today with the LIFI,we used Wi-Fi and also a USB key”.

Our vision for a future intelligent communication network

“So what we see at Orange, when we speak about a lot of technology with our customer, we see that users today are more and more lost. They don't know what is the good solution. And they want they would like a unique solution, a solution capable of giving them an universal signal and access. They need universal access with better throughput, with better latency and they don't know what solutions they have to choose. That's why we identify the opportunity to build projects and to make a solution to begin testing and to create a new network. A network with handover capability between different technologies. For example, when we use the mobile and the signal is bad, you can handover, you can use a new frequency or a new antenna, we speak about horizontal handover. When we speak about handover between different technologies, we speak about vertical handover. And we can manage this vertical handover for an intelligent new network. So we imagine a different architecture in the core network. And now with light, we think and it's my vision that is relevant to build a new architecture based on the 5g as the fibre also better the 5g, the LIFI and the Wi-Fi and the Satellite. So we think today that the vertical handover can be managed both by Fibre and the core network of mobile and PC and that is now a project in orange for example, to deploy this function and to enrich the global network in parallel of this evolution of old technology”.

You can also watch the full video presentation on the following YouTube link from Jakajima YouTube channel.

Li-Fi Conference 2022

The next Li-Fi Conference is coming up on the 28th of June 2022 between 10 am and 4.30 pm CET.

It is interesting to realise that lights that illuminate offices, homes, cars, factories, our streets and more locations also can connect us to data and hence power the growing demand for connectivity and speed.

At this conference professionals from all over the globe will gather together in order to share applications, ideas, new developments and ways to integrate Li-Fi in services, both for consumers and professionals.

This conference will be held Live and Online. The venue will be the High Tech Campus 1, The Strip 5656 AE Eindhoven The Netherlands.

Online tickets can be bought at the following link:

https://tikcit.com/register/61e002336d7fc4b6745cab83/

What is LiFi?

LiFi, also known as "Light Fidelity" is a wireless optical networking technology, which uses light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to transmit data. In 2011, professor Harald Haas made a LiFi demonstration at the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Global Talk on Visible Light Communication (VLC).

VLC uses light as a medium to deliver high-speed communication like Wi-Fi and complies with the IEEE standard IEEE 802.15.7. The IEEE 802.15.7 is a high-speed, bidirectional, and fully networked wireless communication technology-based standard similar to Wi-Fi's IEEE 802.11.

How does LiFi work?

LiFi is a high speed, bidirectional, and fully networked wireless communication of data using light. LiFi constitutes of several light bulbs that form a wireless network.

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.

LiFi Benefits

The primary benefits of LiFi 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 the small coverage area of LiFi 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.

Credit to Oledcomm

LiFi Applications

LiFi can be used for so many applications and the list is increasing every year. You can read our updated list of Li-Fi applications at the following link:

https://www.lifitn.com/blog/2021/2/13/top-30-li-fi-applications-updated-list-including-potential-applications

Credit to pureLiFi

In conclusion, if you are also interested to hear more information about the OWNII Coin or enquire about LiFi devices such as the LiFiMax and Trulifi, 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 LiFi technology, subscribe to our newsletter. Don’t forget to subscribe to our social media accounts. You can also join our Telegram group about LiFi technology on this link:

https://t.me/joinchat/FMzOmsEKyJFrU6Af

Li-Fi Conference 2021 - Recap Part 7 - Light Communication As A Part Of 5G And Beyond

Table of Contents

Li-Fi Conference 2021 - Recap Part 7 - Light Communication As A Part Of 5G And Beyond

Li-Fi Conference 2021

In our last article from our ONLINE Li-Fi Conference 2021 recap series, we discussed the presentation on “LiFi For Education” delivered by Benjamin Azoulay from OLEDCOMM. The conference was organised by the Jakajima, the global High Tech Conference organiser, and the Light Communications Alliance.

Jakajima, Matchmaker for Innovators in the high tech industry, organises many events, ranging from LiFi Technology industry trends, 3D Printing to the Internet of Things, from Unmanned Cargo Aircraft to Health Tech, from 4D Printing to Photonics and from Vertical Farming to Sustainable Materials.

The online Li-Fi Conference included live presentations from researchers, executives and industry specialists from pureLiFi, Nokia, Signify, Orange, Radiocommunications Agency Netherlands, Velmenni, OLEDCOMM, HomeGrid Forum and Weidmüller Deutschland.

In another article recap series, we will talk about the presentation on Light Communication As A Part Of 5G And Beyond delivered by Deepak Solanki from Velmenni. Before this, we will talk about Velmenni.

Velmenni

Velmenni, having developed LiFi, now comes among one of the most valued organizations in the world of optical wireless data transmission. Founded in 2012, Velmenni became the first venture to explore the universe of visible light communications technology in India. With their prime product, LiFi, Velmenni is among the leading LiFi companies disrupting the world of data communication.

They have created a LiFi-based mesh network solution which helps in transferring data across long distances. The product makes setting up wireless networks in ground, motion & air possible, where optical cable infrastructure is difficult to implement. Their team has been working on LiFi for nearly 10 years. It has pioneered in achieving several technological milestones.

Their main focus is on optimisation of speed efficiency and seamless connectivity within the LiFi domain.

Light Communication As A Part Of 5G And Beyond Delivered By Deepak Solanki

Deepak Solanki, one of the founders and CEO at Velmenni, was the seventh presenter at the online Li-Fi Conference 2021. He discussed in his presentation the topic of Light Communication As A Part Of 5G And Beyond.

Deepak always had a keen eye for science-bound discoveries & inventions. Choosing electronic engineering as a lifelong pursuit, Deepak then defined his core to be aggressive & impactful R&D. He has participated in various projects from academic institutions like IIIT - Hyderabad & Sine IIT - Bombay while alongside publishing multiple research reports on mobile robotics. Recently he remedied one of the biggest Road Traffic Control issues in Delhi NCR, India. Today, he's conquering the ever-evolving start-up culture while constructing Li-Fi & disclosing its application in exciting new verticals.

Below are some points discussed about Light Communication As A Part Of 5G And Beyond:

VELMENNI’S ORIGIN

Deepak Solanki started his presentation by saying the following:

“Thank you, Peter, and good evening to all of you, my name is Deepak Solanki and I am the founder and CEO of Velmenni. Just to give you a brief about us. We are a startup based in India. And we have been in operation counted in back in 2012, and have been doing research in the light communication space for the past several years. Our objective was initially to focus on solving multiple challenges, building up light communication solutions, including work on fibre. So in the past several years, we have done different research on the technology and built up several kinds of solutions, which we are offering to end customers now and have been involved in building an ecosystem around light communication technologies”. 

THE SOLUTION

”So, I think most of us understand that light communication is a full duplex bi directional communication technology, which utilises the entire light spectrum for sending data starting from 380 nanometers going up to 1100 nanometers, which covers up the visible part of light spectrum as well as the near infrared. So, the entire light spectrum can be utilised on creating a truly wireless network and just independent from radio frequencies. Depending on the use case, any different kinds of wavelengths of light can be utilised, and a product and solution can be created”. 

OWC FEATURES

“So I think all of us understand that the light communication can offer several features. One of them is that the spectrum is truly freely available throughout the world. So there is no need to get the licence of spectrum from different authorities. And globally, most of our colleagues have shared that information earlier as well, the usable spectrum is quite bigger as compared to the radio frequency spectrum. We can achieve better data throughput as compared to the traditional radio based data communication system. We can go up to much higher in terms of at least the laboratory choice depending upon what kind of optical system you're using, you can achieve multi Gigabit ports in the light communication space. It's a safer technology in terms of EMF radiation. So, since we're not using any radio spectrum, so it's Radio Free, on the other hand, it can also provide really high data securities, most of us talked about the inherent properties of light, where the light can be concentrated to a specific area and in those particular areas, it becomes really secure because if somebody wants to enter into your system, they have to come under the light source which gives an extra layer of security as compared to the train traditional encryption which happens on the application layer.”

THE PROBLEM

“So, I think all of us can understand that the data demand in the last several years has been exponentially increased. So, what is the need of IT you know, we already have video based wireless communication and the cable infrastructure to provide connectivity to the end users and what is the need of a you know, an alternate technology or a new technology? I think the major reason being if you talk about the current either a wired infrastructure or a wireless infrastructure, both have their own challenges, and I would like to talk about more challenges in a practical implementation scenario, when we are talking about a mobile network. In this presentation, I will specifically focus on outdoor backfill use cases of light communication technologies. My colleagues from pureLifI, Signify, and OLEDCOMM have talked about use cases which are more focused for indoor communication. I would like to bring a new perspective where and and a targeted use case where we can talk about outdoor communication and you know look to contribute and inform and to contribute into building up a secured connected wireless infrastructure in outdoor space”, said Deepak Solanki.

KEY CHALLENGES

“So, if I talk about the current mobile networks, I come from a very densely populated country. We have 1.2 billion is our population and other cities are really big and congested. I live in New Delhi which is which has 13 million population in a single city. So there are a lot of congestion issues when I talk about the mobile network. So if I say we have a 4G right now available and in the 4G network, the average data throughput is less than 10 megabits per second hand. And even though there are so many areas within the cities where the connectivity is really cool. So the major challenge, if I talk about for telecom operator to build up a stronger connected infrastructure deploying more denser small cells within the cities, and that can be done, which requires a lot of investment, that's one thing. And then the backhaul becomes a big challenge in a city kind of an infrastructure where the Tensor Networks are there. So generally, to cater this kind of a demand, a telecom operator has to set up small cells at every 200 meters within the cities, and which is really complex to do that. And the battle becomes very challenging when you're deploying a street level, you know, small cells, so the backup can be done through optical fibre cables. But in developing nation, building up a fibre cable infrastructure takes a lot of time. It's expensive. And secondly, it's not easy to do that, because there are challenges in terms of trenching the streets, some of the areas you don't have the space to trench the streets and lay down a fibre cable. So, there is a requirement of wireless backhaul in those particular areas and the use cases and there are several technology which are available which can solve that kind of a challenge, but they come up with their own issues that are alternate technologies in any radio band.”

TECHNOLOGY ALTERNATIVES

“We have V-band, E-band, microwave and all of them have certain trade-offs in terms of reliability of the connection in terms of, you know, having the condition into the network. So, if you talk about the ISN band based radio solution, they face a lot of issues in terms of congestion within the cities. So, I think the light communication technologies can offer a very interesting solution in those areas. It's a part of free space optical communication from a taxonomy point of view. Nikola shared in his previous talk about different taxonomies, we have LIFI which is used for indoor communication network, similar to Wi-Fi, we have OCC then we have free space optical communication. So, these outdoor products which can provide back full connectivity can come under free space optical communication, you know, there are various solutions, which can be made off depending upon what kind of throughput and a distance is required to communicate, but the objective of these kinds of solution is to basically complement the cable infrastructure. So, in the areas wherever you cannot lay down a fibre cable or an Ethernet cable, these devices can be integrated into the field and can provide the value as connectivity and replace the cable from the infrastructure.” 

OUR PRODUCTS

“So, I would like to talk about some of the products that we have built up, we do have a you'd say the traditional LIFI solution, which is meant for indoor use cases, but I would like to talk about outdoor product which is in point to point or point to multipoint communication system, which can work in outdoor scenarios and can basically complement the fibre cable infrastructure. So, on the bottom of the slide, we have our LIFI outdoor machines. We call it LIFI and because we use a similar kind of physical layer, which has been utilised in light communication system and then we are using NBS as a optical front end for this one. So it's basically an LED based outdoor solution.” 

Our Products – A Snapshot

“Some of the features of this product is the backlog product can be utilised to provide short distance point to point connectivity in where we can go up to 200 metres and up to a gigabit throughput can be achieved. Some of the interesting thing about this product is we can actually do point to point communication and also can enable long distance communication while building up a daisy chain network. So, we can send data from one point to another point second to the third, third to the fourth and can make a decision about other networking topologies such as sharing information and also can be implemented onto our product. So, for that, we have a specific node which can send data into multiple direction and can enable point to multipoint connectivity. So, that is also what we are offering as a product and I would like to talk more about that in the later slide. Different kinds of wavelengths can utilise into this product measured in the near infrared region. So, it can work from 780 nanometers to 1500 nanometers. So, though the wavelength is fixed into our product, but yes, it does have the option to choose wavelength depending upon what kind of environmental conditions we would like to use the product”.

TARGETED APPLICATION – OUR FOCUS

“So, how we can utilise it. One thing is, like I mentioned this product can be utilised for backhaul connectivity. In making the connection between the cell towers or from a cell tower to a small cell, all those kinds of battery connectivity can be provided with this product. Secondly, a street level deployment can be done. So, since the device is very small and consumes very less power, it can be directly integrated within the cities on a smartphone and can do a wireless backhaul to the pole. So, in that kind of a network, these are our product can take data from you know a sensor which has been integrated on a pole or even though the security cameras so, the feed from the camera can be taken in bringing into the network wirelessly and even it can provide the backhaul to the WI-FI access points, which can be integrated in a smart city kind of an infrastructure. So, this can complement and can become a part of coming 5g networks. So, in the 5g, the small cell deployments are going to be really dense within the cities you know, there is going to be small cells at every 100 or 150 metre within the cities and specifically in density area, the distance between the small cell will work to reduce a lot. So, the backhaul to those types of small cells can be done through FSO or light communication devices”. 

BACKHAUL AND LAST MILE CONNECTIVITY

“So, this is one of the use cases that we have been focused upon. And we have done some of the real time deployments which I will talk later into the presentation. But more about on the deployment perspective how this product can be deployed. One thing is, we can have a starting node into the network, which can get the backhaul from a fibre from fibre POV, you can directly plug in the fibre input to as an input to like a source device, the source device can send data into multiple direction, it can also enable point to point connectivity but we have shown a point to multipoint architecture where the middle nodes can be distribution nodes can be integrated either on a phone or on a building. They can get data from different directions from different devices and can build up a stronger backhaul network. And this platform can be utilised like I mentioned either for small cell phone, smart poles or even though to provide the last mile connectivity in a broadband use cases. Some of the features of this product if I try to utilise this topology in that case, we can offer a truly mesh network and depending depending upon what kind of redundancy is required, we can choose a number of paths for sending data and if there is a blockage, which comes in any other part, our system can do an auto rerouting which means it can send data to distribution and declining nodes automatically from a different path. So, there is always a backup channel for sending data if there is a disruption in the network. So in this way, we can have a really redundant network which is required if we talk about mobile backhaul link. And we can offer 99.99% uptime in those cases”.

CORE BENEFITS

“Some of the benefits of utilising that kind of network is it's low cost as compared to fibre infrastructure because fibre infrastructure requires trenching of trees taking Arado to write of a permissions and which costs a lot in cities. Secondly, the time to market replaces drastically. So if you wanted to build up a 5g network, specifically in India, where the cities are really congested and really big, if we go with the traditional way and bring the backhaul through the fibre, it is going to take maybe 10 years to deploy a 5g network. So to reduce that time to market, light communication could be a very interesting solution. And light communication based wireless backhaul, I mean they are interesting solution. So apart from that, like if they're working in an unlicensed spectrum, so it can be deployed anywhere in the world without taking permission and spending time. Basically taking those commissions from the government, it can provide ambitious coverage and extend the wireless high fibre wirelessly.  So now these are the certain core benefits. I've mentioned this before that we can reduce the time to market as well as I can basically build up a wireless network or bring data to the end user in a case where the optical fibre cables are difficult to deploy”. 

INDOOR – ENTERPRIZE WLAN CONNECTIVITY

“I would also like to talk about some of the other use cases which are more indoor scenarios. So we can, like the other companies, offering solution indoor connectivity where the user device can be connected to the LIFI network. So, we do have a product which is based upon our access point and a dongle at this moment and we are also looking forward to build up the miniaturised version and working in the ecosystem to bring those use cases also to the market APAC use case”.

“From my ecosystem perspective, I guess most of our colleagues have talked about building up a LIFI ecosystem or a light communication ecosystem. So, LCA is one of the major alliances around like communication technologies. So, we all the industry players are working together to do the education around light communication technology, building up the use cases and bringing the product to the market”.

“So, the standardisation is way too important for us and once we have the standardisation, we can look forward to mass induction of the technology”.

You can also watch the full video presentation on the following YouTube link from Jakajima YouTube channel.

Li-Fi Conference 2022

The next Li-Fi Conference is coming up on the 28th of June 2022 between 10 am and 4.30 pm CET.

It is interesting to realise that lights that illuminate offices, homes, cars, factories, our streets and more locations also can connect us to data and hence power the growing demand for connectivity and speed.

At this conference professionals from all over the globe will gather together in order to share applications, ideas, new developments and ways to integrate Li-Fi in services, both for consumers and professionals.

This conference will be held Live and Online. The venue will be the High Tech Campus 1, The Strip 5656 AE Eindhoven The Netherlands.

Online tickets can be bought at the following link:

https://tikcit.com/register/61e002336d7fc4b6745cab83/

What is LiFi?

LiFi, also known as "Light Fidelity" is a wireless optical networking technology, which uses light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to transmit data. In 2011, professor Harald Haas made a LiFi demonstration at the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Global Talk on Visible Light Communication (VLC).

VLC uses light as a medium to deliver high-speed communication like Wi-Fi and complies with the IEEE standard IEEE 802.15.7. The IEEE 802.15.7 is a high-speed, bidirectional, and fully networked wireless communication technology-based standard similar to Wi-Fi's IEEE 802.11.

How does LiFi work?

LiFi is a high speed, bidirectional, and fully networked wireless communication of data using light. LiFi constitutes of several light bulbs that form a wireless network.

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.

LiFi Benefits

The primary benefits of LiFi 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 the small coverage area of LiFi 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.

Credit to Oledcomm

LiFi Applications

LiFi can be used for so many applications and the list is increasing every year. You can read our updated list of Li-Fi applications at the following link:

https://www.lifitn.com/blog/2021/2/13/top-30-li-fi-applications-updated-list-including-potential-applications

Credit to pureLiFi

In conclusion, if you are also interested to hear more information about the OWNII Coin or enquire about LiFi devices such as the LiFiMax and Trulifi, 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 LiFi technology, subscribe to our newsletter. Don’t forget to subscribe to our social media accounts. You can also join our Telegram group about LiFi technology on this link:

https://t.me/joinchat/FMzOmsEKyJFrU6Af

Li-Fi Conference 2021 - Recap Part 6 - LiFi For Education

Table of Contents

Li-Fi Conference 2021 - Recap Part 6 - LiFi For Education

Li-Fi Conference 2021

In our last article from our ONLINE Li-Fi Conference 2021 recap series, we discussed the presentation delivered by Daniel Behnke from Weidmüller Deutschland on “LiFi Use Cases And Demonstration Scenarios For Smart Manufacturing”. The conference was organised by the Jakajima, the global High Tech Conference organiser, and the Light Communications Alliance.

Jakajima, Matchmaker for Innovators in the high tech industry, organises many events, ranging from LiFi Technology industry trends, 3D Printing to the Internet of Things, from Unmanned Cargo Aircraft to Health Tech, from 4D Printing to Photonics and from Vertical Farming to Sustainable Materials.

The online Li-Fi Conference included live presentations from researchers, executives and industry specialists from pureLiFi, Nokia, Signify, Orange, Radiocommunications Agency Netherlands, Velmenni, OLEDCOMM, HomeGrid Forum and Weidmüller Deutschland.

In another article recap series, we will talk about the presentation on LiFi For Education delivered by Benjamin Azoulay from OLEDCOMM. Before this, we will talk about OLEDCOMM.

OLEDCOMM

Oledcomm designs and develops LiFi network interface devices that enable high-speed wireless data communication. It also serves LiFi equipment in the telecom, datacom, personal electronics, and industrial markets. The company’s product portfolio includes hubs, routers, switches, adapters, drivers, power supplies, and many more.

Oledcomm was founded in 2012 and is currently based in Paris, France. Oledcomm's adventure began in 2005 in the research laboratories of the University of Versailles-Saint-Quentin with the first work on communication by visible light.

Following years of research & development and a passion for innovation, Oledcomm became the pioneer of LiFi (Light Fidelity) solutions and innovation on a global scale.

Based in the Paris region, Oledcomm employs around 25 people and designs complete solutions for LiFi operation, including microcontrollers, LiFi photoreceivers and software platforms.

Today, after more than 28 patents, 15 years of R&D, over 500 trusted clients and several awards, Oledcomm is pursuing a strong mission: to transform the 14 billion points of light in the world into a powerful communication network.

LiFi For Education Delivered By Benjamin Azoulay

Benjamin Azoulay, CEO at OLEDCOMM, was the sixth presenter at the online Li-Fi Conference 2021. He discussed in his presentation the LiFi Use Cases For Education.

Benjamin Azoulay is the founder, CEO and President of Oledcomm. He previously worked at Philips Lighting as CEO business home Europe & North America. He completed his Ingenieur degree in Automatics from Ecole centrale de Nantes.

Below are some points discussed about LiFi For Education:

THE LIFI FOR EDUCATION

Benjamin Azoulay started his presentation by saying the following:

“First of all, I'm going to try to focus on one use case, even if LIFI has many, many possible use cases, which is education because it's at the heart of our experience at OLEDCOMM in the last 18 months. And I would like just to share with you what is my view on the subject”. 

Manifesto for LIFI AS MAINTREAM

”So, first of all, and before starting about this, I would like just to contribute to what my estimated colleagues have said about LIFI, the ecosystem and the LCA, what I realised during the last period is that at the end of the day, if I had there is one manifesto for the LIFI market as mainstream is we are here to replace cables at the end of the day. So, we are not here to compete with Wi-Fi, because I saw some questions about Wi-Fi being competitive in terms of price, we are here to offer an alternative to cables using light and everywhere the radio frequencies are not a solution, they are not desired sometimes they are not authorised sometimes in such an environment. So basically, to my opinion, LIFI is a niche market that a niche market for you know, in a huge market that is Wi-Fi, 4g, and 5g. And there are some spaces that are not covered with those technologies that we can cover as LIFI suppliers or as a LIFI ecosystem. So this is where I see and you know, these pictures show exactly. So I am not a Trump fan. But I think this picture is very nice because it shows the mess of tables inside a war room of the government. Because they are not authorised I guess to use Wi-Fi for security reasons in that environment. And if they would have used LIFI, it would get to the same latency, the same security as the cables with the convenience of having a wireless solution. So this is exactly where we could position our market as LIFI. So again, not to compete with radio frequencies, but to complement radio frequencies everywhere, the radio frequencies are not a solution. If we talk about the LIFI market, I think a lot of things have been said, I'm just mentioning here, a company called BIS research, a market research company, that shows that LIFI is an emerging market that that is obvious to everyone that the market would be of a size of $35 billion in 2028. It's very difficult to estimate. But let's say it's not a big market if you compare it to the radio frequency market, but you see that education is one of the main use cases that has been identified for the LIFI market and represent one of the big segments where the LIFI could have a real use case amongst close to healthcare and other aerospace we talked about, I will notice a few minutes ago.”

LIFI MARKET

“So, that's why at least at OLEDCOMM, you know, we have decided to focus on it because we think that we should specialise in one or two verticals in order to be able to succeed with the risk of a company like for us is the strategic dispersion. So we have decided to focus on education as one of the main that's vertical that we have decided to focus on. So, what are the trends in education? So, first of all, if I have to mention some big trends in education, of course, digital transformation is something that is happening in some countries and is even mandatory. In France for instance, there are there is a programme called L' Ecole numerique and every school will have to equip its students, children, classrooms, with connectivity with tablets and with laptops.”

TOP DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION TRENDS IN EDUCATION

“Because the digital transformation of the schools has completely transformed our accessibility to education, it's incredible how this digital transformation has affected the classrooms, has affected the teachers on how to teach their children and we know that with the COVID crisis, this has been accelerating even more because, during the lockdown, we were able to reach some of our students thanks to the digital transformation of the schools. The digital transformation enables also personalised learning approaches like virtual reality, cloud-based platforms are emerging everywhere today, you can even pass exams through digital tools that are today available in some countries and basically big data is also a big trend, the IoT is inside the schools are also being found like in any smart building. So, basically, the message here is that there is an enormous amount of efforts from all governments in our regions to digitalize the schools. And today, there is only one alternative today is Wi-Fi because as soon as you need to connect wirelessly classroom, you remember this is a very nice picture, remember the IT classroom of the past, you know with all cables everywhere, the nightmare of cables, and today with tablets that are connected directly wirelessly to the network.”, said Benjamin Azoulay.

alternative to Wi-Fi IN THE CLASSROOM

“So, this is a big challenge. And today, at OLEDcomm what we try to understand, is how we could offer an alternative to Wi-Fi, which is the only solution today. The only alternative today to have a wireless connection in the classroom. Knowing that we are in an environment where there are reasons for the LIFI to succeed in this environment. First of all, the conductive classroom is a complex dense area from a connectivity point of view, you have simultaneously 20 to 30 people connecting at the same time, and sometimes exactly at the same time because they are the following the same caution, the same lecture”.

WHY LIFI FOR EDUCATION?

“So, this is a big challenge. And today , at OLEDcomm what you try to understand, is how we could offer an alternative to Wi-Fi, which is the only solution today. The only alternative today to have a wireless connection in the classroom. Knowing that we are in an environment where there are reasons for the LIFI to succeed in this environment. First of all, the conductive classroom is a complex dense area from a connectivity point of view, you have simultaneously 20 to 30 people connecting at the same time, and sometimes exactly at the same time because they are the following the same caution, the same lecture. 

The exposure to radiofrequency in this environment might be an issue because it's young children and sometimes in some countries like in France, there is a low recall Loi Abeille would just forbid exposing children below a certain age to radiofrequency. So there is concretely no alternative in that in those schools in those elementary schools, for instance, to connect in a wireless way. So LIFI in this environment is real, that's a must in order to connect those classrooms.

The fact that it is a dense area means that Wi-Fi connectivity is also a big challenge. I don't know-how, how is your experience personally of connectivity inside a school. But very often, after 1015 connection, it's extremely difficult to have because of the latency of the solutions installed. The high latency it is very difficult to have too many people connecting at the same time, which is a very high limiting factor to the experience of learning inside the classroom. There are solutions which is meaning having professional Wi-Fi boxes inside the classroom, not in the corridor, but inside some schools are today experiencing and trying to put in place but again, the more you densify the Wi-Fi boxes the higher the radio frequency exposure is high. And this seems to be another issue. That's why for those reasons LIFI is a real credible alternative for education in a market which is extremely sizeable. So we are not again you remember we said about the fact that LIFI can be an alternative a niche market in the huge radiofrequency environment but niche market it can be quite big. For instance, in education, there are more than 10 million classrooms that are step by step equipped with connectivity around the globe. I let you measure how big this market is.

EXAMPLE OF LIFI LAY OUT

“The example that I would like to share with you is how to, for instance, we can propose to instal a classroom this is a typical classroom of 10 metres by seven metres with the width around can be a little bit poor with around nine 10 antennas or access points with the coverage that you see here being shown. We can cover reasonably a classroom. So basically it means that having the infrastructure on the ceiling we have now today not tomorrow today. And I'm not talking about OLEDCOMM, I'm talking about the product of our colleagues Signify, pureLiFi and Lucibel. Well, there are solutions to connect a classroom in an easy way. And in a reasonable from an economical point of view also. So, this is a concrete example that we had at OLEDCOMM that really works today.”

KEY SUCCESS FACTORS

“The key success factor for LIFI in education to emerge, of course, is the price you are in an environment where I think this is my estimate that we should that LIFI total price should be in the range of plus or minus 30% versus professional Wi-Fi, to enable the How to say, early adopters, and then inflection point and move to the Wi-Fi, because then the benefits of the LIFI in terms of latency, in terms of comfort of connection, robustness, and we didn't talk about even security versus radiofrequency will have a big impact. So, professional LIFI is not an expensive though professional Wi-Fi 6 box is quite a price. And when a school is adopting your real connectivity series connectivity solution, then the price of LIFI could be reasonable, if it is plus or minus 30%. Versus the solutions today. The other key success factor is, of course, a laptop and tablets that need to be natively integrated, it's very difficult in this environment to have a dongle it's a very complicated our experience is that the professor will take will say hey guys, I will people will lose a dongle etc. So we need step by step to offer a solution to integrate the LIFI natively into tablets, into laptops or at least into cases to make it let's say to make the experience quite easy. And of course, some technical challenges because the classroom from a handover interference point of view is a very complex component. Not easy to do. So, from a technical point of view, we need to embed in order to have a solution that works with 20 to 30 people connecting at the same time in the same space to master completely do handover and reference management. And this is where the discussion we had earlier about how to embed those functionalities into the ITU G.VLC. IEEE 802.11bb is so important in the coming years and the role of the LCA is so important in the coming years to promote the solution and those functionalities. And again, at the end of the day, nothing is possible if we don't, if we are not able to make evangelization and awareness. Today, the people in all countries don't know they have an alternative to Wi-Fi. When they are moving to to to digitalize the schools, the only solution today is Wi-Fi. And we need to make sure they're at least aware that alternative to radiofrequency existing data in those environments, and that there is an alternative that could be let's say from a price point of view reasonable, and that is accessible to everyone. So, so creating awareness is absolute machinery to make the LIFI for educational success”.

miniaturization will help the ecosystem

“I want to finish my presentation by announcing that we'll be making a few days at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona because all that is going to contribute to the ecosystem of the LIFI, we're not the only one our colleagues have, at least to my understanding our colleagues of pureLiFi has also announced last year, the first chipset that is completely integrated to enable LIFI integration to mobile devices. It's our turn now to announce the first integrated circuit of OLEDCOMM, this is a picture this is a real picture of an optical front end that is made of maybe recognise it has a vaxon of two photodiodes and the grey chipset that you see on the picture is the new gigabit chipset of OLEDCOMM. And you see the size but with this size, with this compactness, there is a new word that is coming for integration of the LIFI into laptops into tablets for education also into mobile devices into IoT and into all kinds of possible use cases are coming in the coming years. Thank you very much”. 

You can also watch the full video presentation on the following YouTube link from Jakajima YouTube channel.

Li-Fi Conference 2022

The next Li-Fi Conference is coming up on the 28th of June 2022 between 10 am and 4.30 pm CET.

It is interesting to realise that lights that illuminate offices, homes, cars, factories, our streets and more locations also can connect us to data and hence power the growing demand for connectivity and speed.

At this conference professionals from all over the globe will gather together in order to share applications, ideas, new developments and ways to integrate Li-Fi in services, both for consumers and professionals.

This conference will be held Live and Online. The venue will be the High Tech Campus 1, The Strip 5656 AE Eindhoven The Netherlands.

Online tickets can be bought at the following link:

https://tikcit.com/register/61e002336d7fc4b6745cab83/

What is LiFi?

LiFi, also known as "Light Fidelity" is a wireless optical networking technology, which uses light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to transmit data. In 2011, professor Harald Haas made a LiFi demonstration at the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Global Talk on Visible Light Communication (VLC).

VLC uses light as a medium to deliver high-speed communication like Wi-Fi and complies with the IEEE standard IEEE 802.15.7. The IEEE 802.15.7 is a high-speed, bidirectional, and fully networked wireless communication technology-based standard similar to Wi-Fi's IEEE 802.11.

How does LiFi work?

LiFi is a high speed, bidirectional, and fully networked wireless communication of data using light. LiFi constitutes of several light bulbs that form a wireless network.

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.

LiFi Benefits

The primary benefits of LiFi 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 the small coverage area of LiFi 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.

Credit to Oledcomm

LiFi Applications

LiFi can be used for so many applications and the list is increasing every year. You can read our updated list of Li-Fi applications at the following link:

https://www.lifitn.com/blog/2021/2/13/top-30-li-fi-applications-updated-list-including-potential-applications

Credit to pureLiFi

In conclusion, if you are also interested to hear more information about the OWNII Coin or enquire about LiFi devices such as the LiFiMax and Trulifi, 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 LiFi technology, subscribe to our newsletter. Don’t forget to subscribe to our social media accounts. You can also join our Telegram group about LiFi technology on this link:

https://t.me/joinchat/FMzOmsEKyJFrU6Af

Li-Fi Conference 2021 - Recap Part 5 - LiFi Use Cases And Demonstration Scenarios For Smart Manufacturing

Table of Contents

Li-Fi Conference 2021 - Recap Part 5 - LiFi Use Cases And Demonstration Scenarios For Smart Manufacturing

Li-Fi Conference 2021

In our last article from our ONLINE Li-Fi Conference 2021 recap series, we discussed the presentation delivered by Nikola Serafimovski from pureLiFi on “Taking LiFi Mainstream”. The conference was organised by the Jakajima, the global High Tech Conference organiser, and the Light Communications Alliance.

Jakajima, Matchmaker for Innovators in the high tech industry, organises many events, ranging from LiFi Technology industry trends, 3D Printing to the Internet of Things, from Unmanned Cargo Aircraft to Health Tech, from 4D Printing to Photonics and from Vertical Farming to Sustainable Materials.

The online Li-Fi Conference included live presentations from researchers, executives and industry specialists from pureLiFi, Nokia, Signify, Orange, Radiocommunications Agency Netherlands, Velmenni, OLEDCOMM, HomeGrid Forum and Weidmüller Deutschland.

In another article recap series, we will talk about the presentation on LiFi Use Cases And Demonstration Scenarios For Smart Manufacturing delivered by Daniel Behnke from Weidmüller Deutschland. Before this, we will talk about Weidmüller Deutschland.

Weidmüller Deutschland

Weidmüller Interface GmbH & Co. KG is a German company in the field of electrical connection technology and electronics. Headquarters is in Detmold in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe region , in North Rhine-Westphalia .

The company has production facilities, sales companies and agencies in 80 countries. In the 2019 financial year, Weidmüller achieved sales of around 830 million euros. The company employs around 5,000 people worldwide. With its products, Weidmüller is mainly active in mechanical engineering, the process industry, energy generation and renewable energies, traffic engineering, building infrastructure and the area of ​​device manufacturers.

The company has been working on the topic of Industry 4.0 since 2013. Weidmüller is involved in the leading-edge cluster it's OWL and numerous other research partnerships, such as the Robotisation Academy Foshan, the Smart Factory KL and the Centrum Industrial IT in Lemgo.

Along with Phoenix Contact and Harting, the company is one of the three major German connector manufacturers.

CA Weidmüller was founded in 1850 as a company in the textile industry by Carl August Weidmüller in Reichenbrand near Chemnitz. Gottfried Gläsel joined the company management as a partner in 1931 and became the sole owner and managing director in 1937. For reasons of recognition, the company name CA Weidmüller was retained. In 1943 the product range changed due to the Second World War. While searching for suitable products for his company, Gottfried Gläsel met Wilhelm Staffel, who was a development engineer at AEG and was involved in the development of the first automatic machine controls (e.g. for milling machines). The collaboration with Wilhelm Staffel leads to the production of the first "Staffelterminal ” for AEG in Berlin.

Reestablishing contact with Wilhelm Staffel in 1947 led to a contract that formed the basis for the reestablishment of CA Weidmüller in Berlebeck near Detmold in 1948. In the same year, production of the first plastic-insulated terminal block was started. In 1952, Weidmüller exhibited at the Hanover Fair for the first time. In the same year, the "switchgear row terminal" (SAK) was developed from thermoset plastics as the insulating material and a patented steel clamping yoke as the clamping system. According to the company, the terminal block was also a "best seller" at the end of 2018.

In the years after 1952, the company expanded its international activities and established itself in Europe, America and Asia. Weidmüller is now represented in over 80 countries worldwide. The locations include Germany, the Czech, Republic, Romania, China and Brazil with a production site and at the locations Germany, Spain, Australia, China, Brazil and Singapore with a development centre.

In 1959 the first foreign sales company was founded in England . Sales companies in Austria , France and Italy followed in 1967 . Spain joined in 1978, followed by Sweden and Belgium in the years that followed . With the founding of Thüringische Weidmüller GmbH in 1991, the company also expanded into Eastern and Central Europe. The youngest member of the group in Europe is the sales office in Switzerland .

1975 saw the expansion of activities to Brazil , Canada and the United States . The presence on the American continent was supplemented in 1994 by a sales company in Mexico . After the sales companies were sold, Weidmüller bought them back from the American company Rockwell Automation , Inc. in 2017.

In 1980, a sales company was founded in Japan , through which Weidmüller established its presence in Asia. A sales company in Singapore followed shortly afterwards . Since 1994, the company has also been continuously expanding its presence in China. Group companies and sales companies in Hong Kong , Shanghai and Malaysia complement the presence in the region. Today around 1,000 employees work at two locations and in 16 sales offices. Automation technology had already become the second mainstay in 1997, another area was interactive networking in production, building and energy technology.

The industrial site of Weidmüller Interface GmbH & Co. KG in Detmold-Berlebeck, built around 1950, was demolished in 2005.

In 2014, Weidmüller tried unsuccessfully to take over the family company R. Stahl , which operates in the field of explosion protection, under CFO Harald Vogelsang . Sales in the same year were 673 million euros; in Asia, it increased by around 120 percent after 50 percent in 2013.

Weidmüller offers specific solutions that manufacturing companies can use to prepare for the requirements of Industry 4.0. In 2013, Weidmüller presented a remote I/O system for the first time at the SPS IPC/Drives in Nuremberg, which has been continuously expanded. Since 2018, u-mation, an open, platform-independent automation kit, has made it possible to set up individual control solutions. With Industrial Analytics, Weidmüller also introduced software that enables predictive maintenance, predictive quality and new business models. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are used here.

LiFi Use Cases And Demonstration Scenarios For Smart Manufacturing delivered by Daniel Behnke

Daniel Behnke, Head of Global Digitalization/Corporate Factory IT & Technologies at Weidmüller Deutschland, was the fifth presenter at the online Li-Fi Conference 2021. He discussed in his presentation the LiFi Use Cases And Demonstration Scenarios For Smart Manufacturing.

Daniel Behnke worked as a research assistant at the Technische Universität Dortmund. Daniel went on to work at Weidmüller Deutschland as a smart factory digitalization engineer. He worked his way up to become a senior smart factory digitalization engineer and he is currently the Head of Global Digitalization/Corporate Factory IT & Technologies.

Below are some points discussed about the LiFi Use Cases And Demonstration Scenarios For Smart Manufacturing:

Weidmüller Group

Daniel started his presentation by saying the following:

“First of all, I want to introduce on just a few slides, what my vital areas of balance are what we are doing, so you get a better perspective of why we are dealing with different communication technologies. So, Weidmuller is an expert and transmission of power signals and data. And that's real environments. And, of course, we have launched our product portfolios. As you can see here, we've been starting with Terminal Blocks 70 years ago now. Then after a few years, we added also connectors for different kinds of cables that are needed. So here, for example, recent, but of course, also digital and analogue I O. I, for my third, I'm working at the factories of Europe. So I'm not part of the product development department. But we are also having several large production sites all over the world. For us, it is the opportunity to think about better solutions for our production, and how we can get better, make them more efficient, and so on in the future. As you can see here, also on the right side, we are at the moment, not just talking anymore about just pure hardware components, but also about software components. That's on the 100% for us, for our customers. But of course, that's also very interesting for us at our own production sites”. 

”I've talked about our production sites on a worldwide level to here you can see the map where you can find more, I think your company is not so well known as for example, Signify what we've heard before. But our customers are generally in the business market. So we are not selling to private customers directly.  Our company's headquarters here in Germany and that mode where I'm at the moment and I want to talk about a little bit about our production site in the eastern part of Germany, where we are doing some use cases and demonstrations regarding LIFI technology”.

The Challenge in production is to drive efficiency and availability

“So, why we are talking about different communication technologies. So, it's not that might be not that obvious, why we have some factory IT dealing with production sites here directly involved and also research regarding LIFI communications. So, in general generally what drives us is we want to increase of course, wearability and productivity of all our production sites, we want to increase the process efficiency and yield and also, we want to have better efficiency regarding energy and resources. resources, for example, at the moment is a very huge topic at our company. As maybe some of you are also experiencing at the moment that resources are very limited. And we have issues to continue our production at some times. And all of that lead source to a situation where we are talking about new IT technologies. For example, we want to integrate industrial IoT sensors, and things like that, and are also talking about automation many, many times where we also need communication technology. But in general and important aspect, stressing that many many times also in our research projects. For us communication technology is a servant, that's not a driver. So we are very open-minded regarding all communication technologies and want to see what fits the most for us.”

Understand your production to optimize the results

“What kind of channel advantages do we see in the upcoming future. As I've mentioned, the number of sensors and actors that are increasing at the moment and will be much more in the future. We want to have a lot of data from all our machines and ultimates. Because we want to analyse them, we want to see what we can do better than we are doing at the moment. And therefore getting a lot more information will reduce the time to act, if we see some issues with some machines. And therefore at the end of the day, we also need the real-time analysis of our production states.”, said Daniel Behnke.

EU Horizon 2020 project

“What kind of channel advantages do we see in the upcoming future. As I've mentioned, the number of sensors and actors that are increasing at the moment and will be much more in the future. We want to have a lot of data from all our machines and ultimates. Because we want to analyse them, we want to see what we can do better than we are doing at the moment. And therefore getting a lot more information will reduce the time to act, if we see some issues with some machines. And therefore at the end, we also need the real-time analysis of our production states”. 

“To get in touch with LIFI technologies, we are in the lucky situation that we are part of the EU Horizon 2020 project named ELIOT, where we can evaluate the use of LIFI by communication for smart manufacturing for us. What we are doing in this project is on the first-hand where I've been talking a lot about potential use cases. I will talk about that on the next slides. And we want to set up demonstration cases, to see how the technology works firsthand. We want to see them working in our factories and our production sites. And yeah, that's what we want to do our daily activities. Our main questions are, for example, is there sufficient coverage for all our machines? How many luminaires do we need at the end? Is the reliability better than Wi-Fi provides for us, we all know Wi-Fi peripheral technology but has some flaws at some times. But also we have to keep in mind the costs from for the different technologies. So for example, we are using Wi-Fi, you will see that on the next slides. Also, another factor is at the moment and working environment. But we see some issues over there. And the question for us is will LIFI be a benefit for us keeping costs and performance in mind. And also what are some very interesting topic, for the whole industry, our 5g campus networks, we are also involved in another 5g research project where we want to evaluate exactly the use of 5g over there. What's also very interesting and important for us at the end to evaluate the different technologies and our Setup and Maintenance efforts. So what we want to see not just what the investors want but also what are the costs forum for the next year's forum. Unfortunately, we wanted to be more at the demonstration phase at the moment but due to COVID-19, we weren't able to have any visitors and our production sites in the last month. So we couldn't set up the demonstrator, we will do that now in the fall. And at the moment we see the end of this project and of the year. Maybe it changes a little bit”.

LiFi IIoT Network –Robust and reliable machine communication

“But let's talk about the use cases. So, we see three or four different use cases I want to introduce shortly. First of all, we have seen the industrial IoT network. So we need robust and reliable machine communication. For example, we want to transmit camera information for quality checks, present formation and things like that. And also, of course, energy from the energy monitoring work that we can increase our data transparency. We want to save efforts of maybe cable installation because we have a faster setup time for new machines and but also we want to have a look at technical challenges. So how to connect all the industrial IoT devices”.

“I was listening very carefully to Nikola's talk beforehand because that's, that's the most important aspect at the end. So what kind of end-user devices will be available for, LIFI communication. And also, if we want to talk about full automation at the end, we have to have very low latency.”

LiFi IIoT Network – Mobility support

“What we are also examining and Elliott is the mobility support with the integration of LIFI into the 5g core. There, we are working together on the phone over-focus. And there were talking about different use cases, integration of more devices. I want to stress that a little bit more on some detailed slides. So first of all, as I've mentioned before, we want to directly interconnect the machines, we can do that either via LIFI or via 5g and maybe have some kind of edge server cluster onto the machines for real-time and machine data analysis”.

LiFi IIoT Network – Order and process data

“Then, we also want to forward this data information to MDS or ERP systems. We want to inform our information like cycle times to a counsellor, etc, maybe to a cloud system could be also on intranet system”.

LiFi IIoT Network – Maintenance

“For the iPad, that's mentioned here and done the Microsoft HoloLens we see the status monitoring and especially maintenance support. We are heavily using the Microsoft HoloLens at our production sites to support if there's an issue and also to set up new machines that have been developed here in Germany and are now operating for example, in Romania. And during the last month where we weren't able to travel, we did that with the Microsoft HoloLens and also with that, with that, we need a word reliable communication technology”. 

LiFi IIoT Network – Mobility and fixed positions with iOS devices

“I want to show you some pictures. So, you get a better impression of what we foresee as use cases. For example, here for the iOS devices also from a mobility perspective, there were, for example, the icons, which we are using for confirmation of production parts. In the demonstration scenario for ELIOT, we will integrate those devices via 5g because they are we have mobility support everywhere and the factory. And we have also foreseen switching to the iPad. And data offloading scenario when we are close to our machine where we have a LIFI link available, then we can hand over the communication from 5g to LIFI to get some more information. But also we are using mobile devices such as an iPad on fixed positions, for example, here at the machine where we are doing all the different aspects regarding our manufacturing execution system. So, set output times will be monitored over there as well as order confirmations as well. quality checks, things like that. And for that LIFI integration would be very helpful for us because these iPads are at the moment connected via Wi-Fi. And, and generally, it's working, but it's working, I would say 95% and we want to have it somewhere above 99% of the time. But also you can see here in challenging environments because of course we have to keep the iPads in a robust case. So also there. That would be an interesting aspect of our discussions”.

ITS – Intelligent Transport Systems

“And we have another use case that's regarding positioning, we are using intelligent transport systems. You can see here a picture from our factory and we want to use much more in the upcoming future with enhanced automation. And automated logistics becomes also a very important topic in the next years. And there, we need a very high precision up to a few centimetres. And yeah, we are very interested to see how the technology is working in that regard”.

“With that, I want to conclude my tour. Unfortunately, I am not able to show you any results at the moment, because we are not in the phase where we could have set up the demonstrations. We will do that in the upcoming month and maybe end of this year or startup next year. We also have some results regarding our use cases. So our next steps are, we want to set up the demonstrations. And then we want to compare the technology, for example, adding 5g campus net networks. So at the end of the project, ELIOT, that will be the decision for us. And that's our aim and our goal. If LIFI is interesting technology and will be also part of our future strategy regarding future production sites, or why Wi-Fi and 5g are the benefits for us and we will focus on that communication technologies”.

You can also watch the full video presentation on the following YouTube link from Jakajima YouTube channel.

Li-Fi Conference 2022

The next Li-Fi Conference is coming up on the 28th of June 2022 between 10 am and 4.30 pm CET.

It is interesting to realise that lights that illuminate offices, homes, cars, factories, our streets and more locations also can connect us to data and hence power the growing demand for connectivity and speed.

At this conference professionals from all over the globe will gather together in order to share applications, ideas, new developments and ways to integrate Li-Fi in services, both for consumers and professionals.

This conference will be held Live and Online. The venue will be the High Tech Campus 1, The Strip 5656 AE Eindhoven The Netherlands.

Online tickets can be bought at the following link:

https://tikcit.com/register/61e002336d7fc4b6745cab83/

What is LiFi?

LiFi, also known as "Light Fidelity" is a wireless optical networking technology, which uses light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to transmit data. In 2011, professor Harald Haas made a LiFi demonstration at the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Global Talk on Visible Light Communication (VLC).

VLC uses light as a medium to deliver high-speed communication like Wi-Fi and complies with the IEEE standard IEEE 802.15.7. The IEEE 802.15.7 is a high-speed, bidirectional, and fully networked wireless communication technology-based standard similar to Wi-Fi's IEEE 802.11.

How does LiFi work?

LiFi is a high speed, bidirectional, and fully networked wireless communication of data using light. LiFi constitutes of several light bulbs that form a wireless network.

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.

LiFi Benefits

The primary benefits of LiFi 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 the small coverage area of LiFi 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.

Credit to Oledcomm

LiFi Applications

LiFi can be used for so many applications and the list is increasing every year. You can read our updated list of Li-Fi applications at the following link:

https://www.lifitn.com/blog/2021/2/13/top-30-li-fi-applications-updated-list-including-potential-applications

Credit to pureLiFi

In conclusion, if you are also interested to hear more information about the OWNII Coin or enquire about LiFi devices such as the LiFiMax and Trulifi, 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 LiFi technology, subscribe to our newsletter. Don’t forget to subscribe to our social media accounts. You can also join our Telegram group about LiFi technology on this link:

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