Table of Contents
Revisiting The Getac Podcast All Things Rugged with pureLiFi - Episode 007: The Internet at The Speed of Light - Part 2
In our previous article, we discussed and pick some of the statements said on the part 1 episode of the Getac podcast about LiFi technology. Alistair Banham, CEO of pureLiFi, and Bill Galione, Senior Vice President of Global Sales at pureLiFi Ltd, were invited as guest speakers for a two-part episode on The Getac Podcast All Things Rugged. MarcReece was the host of the podcast. Randy Pfeifer, Wireless Strategist at Getac, was also in attendance and gave his contributions about LiFi technology.
The Getac Podcast covers everything you need to know about rugged computing solutions in an enterprise environment. Each episode features industry thought leaders and rugged solution providers discussing industry challenges, mobile computing, vertical use cases, and comprehensive rugged computing solutions.
In this part 2 podcast episode, they continue their conversation about what they consider LiFi technology as a game changer in wireless connectivity. pureLiFi is one of the companies that are bringing this next generation of wireless communications to the market.
Below are some of the conversations of the podcast about LiFi technology. Some of the conversations have been edited by LiFi Tech News:
Alistair Banham: “Well, I think I think it's very important to recognise that the light spectrum is the largest, it's larger than the RF spectrum, and therefore will provide the opportunity to really drive higher bandwidth data. So, we see the LiFi working alongside the RF technologies, 5g, WiFi and other RF technologies. And we see that being kind of the bearer for the larger data, data information that's going to be transmitted. And then we see, you know, WiFi, supporting the maybe the lower data content, information. And overall, what will happen is, the end user will have an improved quality of experience. So, LiFi actually helps when working alongside those RF technologies to improve the quality of service and the experience for the user of the device.”
Alistair Banham: “So, you know, one of the key things we did when we started on this LiFi journey was to look at standardisation. The standardisation is extremely important if you want to get full interoperability between not only different technologies like RF and light but also between different manufacturers' devices, so people can, you know, interact and work off and alongside other products which are LiFi-enabled. So, what pureLiFi I did, we kicked off the topic interest group with the 802.11bb standardisation body. And, you know, back in 2018, you know, we were very fortunate to get the 802.11bb, which is the first light communication standard aligned to the 802.11 protocol, which by the way is the most pervasive protocol on this planet, all of our connected devices are 802.11 driven. And what that means is that you can start connecting LiFi into everyday connected devices, whether it be your smartphone, whether it be your TV, whether it be your soundbar, whether it be your ruggedised tablet, whether it be your, your consumer, tablet, your digital watch, or your GPS, all these devices, use 802.11 baseband devices and LiFi can connect directly to those. So, really, it supports the vision of full interoperability with WiFi and other RF technologies. And what it does is it allows, you know, current silicon vendors of the baseband devices to really exploit the full potential of their baseman's technologies with antennas that are fast, secure and congestion free. And what it does is you can have an RF and an RF signal being transmitted sitting alongside a LiFi antenna. So, both worlds are supported with the standardisation which is been driven by 802.11bb.”
Alistair Banham: “So, I think the goal for LiFi is not to replace RF technologies. With RF technologies as super technologies and the clear use cases where RF will be used and can be used, we see it complementary and additive. But also, what we're finding now is that there are multiple use cases arising and, you know, Bill will cover some of these later, where LiFi really stands out on his own, because you're not allowed to use RF with an electromagnetic footprint in those areas. So, no, it's not going to replace it's going to be complementary and additive. But actually, the user's overall experience will go up by using both of these technologies together.”
Randy Pfeifer: “Sure. So, in mid-2018, our Getac UK office engaged with pureLiFi, to learn more about the technology. So, we liked a lot of the attributes of the technology, high level of security being probably prominent in that space, we decided to take on and look at integrating that technology into what at that time was called our tablet that is evolved into our UX10, which is a 10-inch Windows-based tablet, and in to showcase some of that technology. I do want to take a moment though, to thank pureLiFi for their innovations around this technology and Professor Harold Haas for his innovations in this space. So, Getac loves to stay on the leading edge of any wireless technology in this space. And we took this on and the UK office quickly adopted it into the US markets for US Army to demonstrate some of this capability. And we were able to gain a lot of ground and a lot of traction with the US Army in the spaces of pop-up command centres, for example. So, we'll talk about that here in a moment. But what's important is that the differences between or the comparisons of LiFi technology against WiFi or cellular is that it can be used in a very quick means of popping up communications, whether it be in command centres or boardrooms or whatever the use case might lead into. It's as easy as moving from when we think about the light and the communications moving from incandescent light to fluorescent light to LED light. That's been the evolution. But as we moved into LED, that's when the light by technology really could adapt and provide some better communication infrastructures. And with built-in security around the ability to not have it no eavesdropping. It can't be hacked, the various frequencies of light, whether it be red, blue, green, and so on, separated in the communications that really interested us in providing a value add to not only the Getac product line, but certainly in the LiFi technology itself in its secure nature that it can provide. And then lastly, the geolocation for safety and security, whether that be in any space of the federal government, the enterprise space, the utility space, we can provide that information from a secure point of view, almost like you would separate it in a private network or in VLANs. So, it's all about being able to separate that traffic and provide that high level of security.”
Alistair Banham: “Yeah, I mean, that's a really great question, Mark. And, you know, just reflecting back on, you know, the early years when I was working with the company on this technology, you know, it wasn't mature enough at that time, we were just developing and, you know, providing first demonstrable solutions for customers to evaluate. And the interesting thing here is that as you started to, you know, to talk to customers about the technology, you know, security, clearly, you know, the fact that you're in a cone, you go outside the cone, it can't be jammed, and all these kinds of great things was beginning to really take shape. So, we had lots of potential areas across multiple sorts of market verticals that were considering, well, how do we use this stuff, and not all of them knew how they were going to use it. But I think as the technologies evolved, it's matured, and, you know, I'm really, really happy to say that our technology is leading. And we have good mature products, and we have a great roadmap of other products that come through the system, you're starting to focus now on, you know, key markets that will really drive revenues, and adoption for the business. And as with most new technologies, they do follow the adoption curve, which is the traditional adoption curve, which is starting in defence, defence adopts it then starts to get a new, new area in manufacturing or enterprise. And then it walks its way through towards touching everyone in the home in the consumer, which is where we all want to be. So, I think where we are today is where we've expanded over time, as we're now very focused on this whole defence market. And there's manufacturing environment, which is the, I think there's going to be the next big beachhead for this technology. But in parallel, we're working to demonstrate how this can work in the home and touch everyone on this planet as we go forward. So, I think, you know, from a broad base of activity, we're now narrowing down to some very key focused areas to deliver this great technology.”
Alistair Banham: “So, you know, what we did at Mobile World Congress this year, was to launch the LiFi home ecosystem. And the whole point of that was to demonstrate to everyone that LiFi can be used in the home. So, we had a new downlighter, we, we connected that downlighter to, you know, a head-to-head mounted display, we connected to our integrated phones, we connected it to a whole series of devices. And very importantly, we demonstrated that you don't need to dig holes in your walls, to you know, put cables in like cat or, or Power over Ethernet to deploy LiFi, the home, we showed that you could use it to your existing wiring in the house that you have today. So, we're on that journey now, where we're beginning to develop these products, and we have them out there being demonstrated and evaluated by customers. And you know, people come to us for, you know, further discussions and evaluation around the home environment. But of course, today we're really focused on our, you know, our beachhead market, which is the defence and moving into the manufacturing environment.”
Bill Galione: “Yeah, there are, there seems like there's an endless number of use cases, we have discussions with customers virtually every week about new industries, new applications, new use cases, and pretty much anybody who can take advantage of the benefits we've been talking about, you know, in terms of interference, free communication, highly reliable, high data rate, excellent user experience is going to be very interested in LiFi and they are, but we as Alistair said, have to narrow down our focus. Initially, our focus has been government in general and defence in particular. And there are some interesting use cases in defence, the one that Randy mentioned briefly, that really brings value by using LiFi as a tactical operations centre, in say, a war zone for our warfighters who might be in a tent environment and need to have wireless communication, but certainly don't want to have any em synergy signature, they don't want to use RF technology. So, LiFi is perfect for that. Very, very secure one. We say that LiFi saves missions and saves lives. And that is very true. And it's not just us saying is the end customer saying it. So, what better value proposition could you possibly have than saving missions and saving lives for our defence, but it goes beyond that, in terms of the Tactical Operations Centre application, there's another value that LiFi brings, for instance, if you're going to have a hard-wired Ethernet connection, which is typically what they have been doing up until now, there's about five times as much cabling required to get that set up. And it's a very complex setup. So, five times as much cabling, and that cabling is generally not recoverable or reusable. Because when the defence people go from one location to another, they'll typically leave that cabling behind them. That's not the case with LiFi. LiFi is very simple to set up, fast to set up faster tends to take down. And you know, the cabling is a minimum amount of cabling, and it's recoverable and reusable. And there are also logistical advantages for that particular use case where you don't really have to have an expert there and an IT guy on site, getting it set up, the guys on the ground can get it set up, they can do it no expertise required and therefore fewer people. So, the value proposition is really clear there for that Tactical Operations Centre. You know, it's a life-saving application mission-saving application. There are economic advantages, and there are logistical advantages there. As we evolve this defence business, there is Alistair refers to it briefly. There's an adjacent market that's emerging, and that is secure manufacturing. So if there's the manufacturing of a classified system in a classified environment, you can't use WiFi or WiFi there either. You know, RF is just not applicable in such a classified environment. So, the obvious answer is LiFi. And in those manufacturing environments, typically, AR is used. So, augmented reality with a Getac tablet, or a head-mounted display is used. And one of the things that LiFi does best is low latency. Low Latency is essential for AR-type applications. So, we see this as an emerging adjacent market, building on the strength that we have in defence, to build a whole new market. So that's one use case is defence. It was already mentioned, the enterprise is another interesting and evolving and growing market for us. Of course, data confidentiality of data is everything. So, secure boardrooms, secure conference rooms, we read in the paper all the time about data breaches, while security is really, really important in these kinds of environments. Light doesn't penetrate walls, it's highly secure, and we can reduce the number of attack vectors. And this is getting a lot of good traction within the enterprise. There are other applications in enterprise that are interesting, and secure access, be it physical or logical access, and access to information is only available via LiFi to certain people in certain locations. Other enterprise things like secure design centres, as we already mentioned, secure manufacturing, and inventory control, there's just many, many new use cases emerging within the enterprise. So, that's another use case that we're focused on.”
Marc Reece: “Yeah, so, let me ask you a question. Because I keep hearing us it's the security and it can't be hacked. And I like to find out a little bit more about that kind of experiment that why can't it be hacked?”
Bill Galione: “We agree it's an exciting market. The third one that we think there's a case to be made for LiFi is, for instance in utilities and We work with our partner Getac there, you guys have experienced in there, we're just getting our feet wet in terms of those types of opportunities and utilities. And the two use cases there, which we think are particularly interesting are kind of industrial IoT applications. So, think about predictive maintenance, where, you know, we've done this in the past to where a LiFi-enabled sensor gathers data in a nasty, harsh, congested environment to transmit information back in terms of when a particular piece of equipment might need to be serviced. So, LiFi, and it's very confidential and secure as well. LiFi is very, very well suited for that application. And then maintenance. In general, we talk about the connected maintainer, this maintainer maintenance person might be carrying around a Getac tablet, and he or she may have a head-mounted display back to this AR play again, where the maintenance function utilises augmented reality. And back to the low latency, high security, low latency aspects of LiFi. It's perfect for that application. So, we see utilities as another interesting market and maybe oil and gas after that one.”
Randy Pfeifer: “Sure. No, you know, on the defence side, I think Bill really nailed it on the head. And that's one of the key elements that we realised and recognised early on. And that was these pop-up tactical command centres, how quickly it is to assemble and disassemble these, I'm right on the right point, all you need is power, and a little bit of backhaul. But basically, the inside of those command centres, whether it be a tent or other facilities, the security of that technology is you know, within the walls of that building. So, that was huge. When it moved to the enterprise space, he touched on the executive conference rooms, and it's all about making sure that as you walk into that room, there's you're instantly connected, that room is the only one that has that connectivity. And we can separate that traffic, you know, as we said, light by colour, or it could be just that conference room in particular, but it's all about trying to mitigate WiFi contention, because every enterprise that I think we can walk into today has WiFi in it, and there is no contention between LiFi and WiFi. So, they can coexist, we can separate the traffic, we can have, you know, provide a very secure environment for those types of environments. Manufacturing was also our other one. And although Bill mentioned that as well, the manufacturing side of this is, is probably one of our second-largest enterprise sectors. And we see that when we're working with, you know, large companies that have whether you're manufacturing or you're doing repairs, we can separate that traffic based on the use cases. And then last but not least, you know, utilities, I think there are a couple of other use cases that really come into play here. And that is Network Operation centres or knocks for the utilities and telecommunications side of things. There's a lot of proprietary data that has to be contained within those knocks, and having LiFi technology in that environment is perfect. And then similarly in the CEOs or central offices of telecommunications companies, or in the device monitoring or IoT monitoring space, it's all about making sure that we're having WiFi avoidance, or coexisting with LiFi, because that is a technology that is prominent in those both of those spaces. So, we see the use cases across these three and other sectors as being a more of a coexistence of WiFi technology or with it. And then, of course, providing that high level of security in all of those environments.”
Podcast Recording
You can also listen to and download the podcast on the following:
https://getac.podbean.com/e/episode-007-the-internet-at-the-speed-of-light-part-2/
Getac
Since 1989, Getac has been manufacturing rugged computers for some of the most demanding users in some of the most demanding environments. As one of the leading rugged computer manufacturers, Getac offers the most extensive rugged computing product lines including notebooks, tablets and handheld computers. As one of the leading rugged computer providers, Getac offers extensive rugged computing product lines including laptops and tablet computers. Getac serves a wide range of vertical markets including military & defence, law enforcement, public safety, emergency services, utility, natural resources, oil and gas, telecommunications, transportation and industrial manufacturing.
You can read an article when Getac first announced the Integration of Li-Fi Technology into the Rugged Mobile Computing Market here
Li-Fi Conference 2022
The Li-Fi Conference 2022 Edition was a great success. Li Fi Tech News will very soon write articles on the topics treated at the Conference.
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:
Credit to pureLiFi
LiFi Systems Reviews by LiFi Tech News
OLEDCOMM LIFIMAX KIT REVIEW - ONE YEAR IN
We reviewed the LiFiMax kit produced by the leading French LiFi company Oledcomm. We bought this LiFi kit system at the end of 2020. After over a year of use, we decided to write a review of this LiFi system. We looked briefly at the profile of Oledcomm, a brief history of the LiFiMax system, the Kit box contents, some testing and performance results of this LiFi system, the customer experience and our own verdict (the good and the bad points) of the LiFiMax kit.
You can read the review on this link:
https://www.lifitn.com/blog/lifimaxreview
SIGNIFY TRULIFI 6002.1 STARTER KIT SYSTEM REVIEW
We also reviewed the Trulifi 6002.1 starter kit produced by Signify, the world leader in lighting for professionals, consumers and lighting for the Internet of Things. We got this LiFi kit system with the help of PCDSI and Signify around August 2021. In a similar fashion done with our previous review of the LiFiMax kit a few months ago, we will look briefly at the profile of Signify, a brief history of the Trulifi 6002.1 kit, the Kit box contents, some testing and performance results of this LiFi system, the customer experience and our own verdict (the good points and the bad points) of the Trulifi 6002.1 kit.
You can read the review on this link:
https://www.lifitn.com/blog/trulifi6002review
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