Li-Fi Conference 2021 - Recap Part 1 - Introduction To The Light Communication Alliance (LCA)
Li-Fi Conference 2021
Today, we are going to discuss the ONLINE Li-Fi Conference held last year on the 24th of June 2021. This 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.
As technology develops itself from atoms to bits and from bits to atoms, traditional boundaries between value chains disappear which leads to new business opportunities. According to their website, the combination of business, technology, creativity, enthusiasm and humour is their leitmotif.
Jakajima offers services such as Jakajima events/conferences, Conference as a Service, Workshops, Market Intelligence, Tikcit registration platform and Moderator/Chairman services.
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 the first part of the conference, Nikola Serafimovski, Co-Chairman of Light Communications Alliance and Musa Unmehopa, Head of Ecosystems and Strategic Alliances for LiFi at Signify shared their views on LiFi and the LiFi ecosystem.
Livia Rosu from HomeGrid Forum talked about G.hn backbone and ecosystem support for LiFi use cases, while Nikola Serafimovski from pureLiFi spoke about taking LiFi mainstream.
Daniel Behnke from Weidmüller Deutschland shared LiFi use cases and demonstration scenarios for Smart Manufacturing while Benjamin Azoulay from OLEDCOMM talked about LiFi for educational applications.
Furthermore, Deepak Solanki from Velmenni R&D addressed the light communication role in the 5G infrastructure planning and presented a case study on real-time deployment in a 5G test-bed while Micheline Perrufel and Sylvain Leroux from Orange talked about LiFi at the heart of future intelligent communications networks.
Maximilian Riegel from Nokia showed where common Wi-Fi interworking models for the integration with 5G core and services fall short in fully leveraging LiFi capabilities and what steps have to be taken in development and standardisation to overcome the shortcomings in the current approaches.
Lastly, René Vroom from Radiocommunications Agency Netherlands presented the regulator’s perspective on LiFi. “Today’s RF spectrum is crowded with users”, he says. “LiFi might become a new comfort in telecom to ease the pressure on the spectrum, and become a new complementary mechanism in high capacity internet access. Global standardisation and economy of scale shall help LiFi to integrate in existing broadband ecosystem”.
We will not be able to go through all the sections of the Li-Fi Conference in one article. However in this article, we will talk about the section on the Light Communication Alliance.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Introduction To The Light Communication Alliance by Nikola Serafimovski
Nikola Serafimovski, Co-Chairman of Light Communications Alliance and long time senior management member at pureLiFi, was the first presenter at the online Li-Fi Conference. He discussed in detail the history and purpose of the LCA.
Below are some points discussed about the LCA
LCA in a nutshell
Nikola Serafimovski said: “So this is the light communication, the LCA. Our motivation is really to create a single vision of what light communication can do for the users, for the people and for the industry that we're looking to work with. To deliver this message requires a far-reaching and coherent aqueous ecosystem working together in a consistent pace. The way to achieve this is education. As a lot of you will know, despite decades of work in light communications, there is still a lot of misunderstanding about what the technology is, how it works, and a lot of misconceptions. The only way to get across that is with consistent clear communications on what we do and how we do it. So that LCA was formed in June 2019, with initial kind of white papers about what role like communications could play, published already in 2018”.
The Taxonomy of Light Communications
Nikola Serafimovski then stated the following:
“On the back of decade's worth of work by a whole range of our member organisations, we're really covering three different aspects, which is LiFi, high speed bi directional wireless communications, sorry, this is the taxonomy. The first case is basically in the same way that RF is not the same for WiFi. And for 5g. And for so on, we have a clear understanding of what 5g is and what WiFi is, and what Bluetooth is, we need to have the same thing with light communications. So we've created effectively a taxonomy which has four distinct sections. The first one is optical camera communications. So this is when you use the relatively speaking low data rate, low speed communications from an LED light for information to be picked up by a smartphone camera that is very, very useful for unidirectional, very location based, sensitive or location based information access. And you can drive a lot of information based services from that including advertising, and notifications, and so on. The next is visible light communication, which has frequently been synonymous with LiFi, Light Fidelity. But there are differences. And again, this confusion is where we're trying to create a bit of a distinction. LiFi, as I started saying earlier, is secure high speed mobile wireless communications delivered using light trying to emulate a WiFi user experience except using the light medium. And then, free space optics has been around for decades. It's really point to point bi directional high speed long distance backhaul communications used for typically connecting backhaul sites or key elements. So if you want to think of the RF alternatives or not alternatives of the RF counterparts, OCC would be something similar to an RFID beacon. LiFi would be similar to WiFi, or 5g and FSO would be similar to microwave or millimetre wave links, long range point to point. So that's the that's a very important message of what the different technologies are and how they play in the overall like communication space”.
Key Members and LCA Eco System
“So if we look at the ecosystem that's required to do this, and I've zoomed in on the WiFi ecosystem here, effectively, you need the entire the entire industry to come together to do a meaningful deployment in the space that includes chipset providers, infrastructure providers, device integrators, test houses, research organisations, telecom operators, and customers and everybody else in the middle. With LiFi and light communications, it's exactly the same thing. We need all of those providers plus now we're bringing in the lighting industry as well as bespoke Li fi vendors that have emerged over the last few years. So where are we today? Well, as I mentioned, we have a number of live fine OCC players. We have a number of application specific developers. We have a number of operators that have joined us such as equipment vendors, network and security solutions and research in universities. This is the current set of participating organisations and we are very, very keen to enhance and complement this ecosystem with more members”, said Nikola Serafimovski.
“We have also established a range of liaisons working through the Ethernet Alliance to complement the memorandum of understanding and make sure that the Ethernet Alliance and all the people that are involved in that space are aware of what role LiFi can play in the future of buildings. This also ties in with the Continental automated buildings Association, which is again an industry Alliance developing concepts and architectures around in building backbone as well as connectivity and sensors for what the future of automated buildings will be. And, of course, the WiFi Alliance through the standardisation efforts in IEEE 802 dot 11. There's also the home grid forum, which isn't here, but I'm sure I know the discussions are on the way. There's also the GSMA, which discussions are on the way which is the body that's working on 5g. And so we're looking at making raising awareness of light communications through a number of these industrial associations and making sure that everybody understands what role LiFi, and in particular, like communications in general, will play”.
Structure of the LCA
“What's the structure of it? effectively, we have the LCA board, which is for founding members and strategic members. We have a chair vice chair to vice chairs secretary and treasurer, which is the executive committee and then all of the strategic and founding members have one board seat each. Then we have three working groups. One is the concern with the management trademarks and Corporation growth, promotional activities, etc… Working Group two is a lot about the marketing sections, which is conference white papers, events like this real deployments, exhibitions when they eventually come around, and really generating a consistent view of the market. Working group three is around liaisons and centred with standardisation bodies, such as IEEE, the ITT IQ are three GPP, Wi Fi Alliance and more. And in this kind of organisation, each of these working groups has its own task list, let's say where member organisations can participate in one or any number of those ongoing activities”, said Nikola Serafimovski.
Added Values of LC Technologies
“So why are we looking at LiFi in communication technologies? Well, the first thing is that we have the ability to add new access points and create stable connections for the users. You can automatically decide whether the WiFi AP or the LiFi is the best scenario. And I'm sure you'll hear a lot of use cases on the reliability and robustness that LiFi can offer in this context. We can guarantee data on communications. So resilience and security are very important. The wireless communications when using RF can frequently be disrupted, interfered, whether that's jammed or it's detected, or it's ease dropped or intercepted. Any number of elements are weak points for RF in particular and sensitive environments, where LiFi doesn't have that, as a consequence, it can significantly improve the security between any two points. As you have a very finite section that you're concerned about, you can complimentary deployed alongside 5g or WiFi to address critical KPIs. You can deploy light communications in parallel to any other RF solution would no knock on effects, whether it's from a regulatory perspective or whether it's from a device perspective, we are just outside of that core area. And you can get users to seamlessly transition between these different wireless technologies to make sure that you have the best user experience whether that's very low latency end to end solutions are very secure implementations. And you can also use light communications to create very simple, very precise indoor localisation and navigation systems with the potential to improve energy efficiency and energy savings as we move forward. At the end of the day, lighting does consume a large percentage of the overall global electricity, and why not be being able to combine both of those systems in the future”.
Use Cases
“So if we look at some of the use cases, and again, these are very non exhaustive, we'll start from clockwise from the top. You have hospitals which are very complimentary high speed data rate and EMI sensitive environments, you have industry 4.0 and they are partners on the call that will talk in a lot more detail about the improvements of security and safety and reliability. You have the FY two acts effectively using vehicles to connecting vehicles using lights to avoid some of this kind of RF concerns that might be there and complement some of that reliability and robustness which is required”.
“You have smart cities, which is looking at a lot of this, in particular energy efficiency benefits that can be raised with that you have applications in the home for some of the areas that are concerned about in particular, like electromagnetic smog. And while much of the world may not necessarily see that as a concern, there are definitely areas and organisations that are concerned by it. By it in particular, I know that in France, you know French elementary schools don't allow WiFi to be used, but perhaps LiFi could be used because of concerns around RF. But there's a range of other advantages for the home such as non interference and reliability again, eventually using it in the smart buildings and the Smart Lighting to make sure that everything and everyone is connected through light”.
Light Communication Adoption Tentative
“So some of the adoption curves that we've seen at a very high level, you know, today, optical camera communications is readily deployed and there are dozens, hundreds of different deployments using this technology to provide location based services, whether that's for retail for advertising for pathfinding, or a number of other use cases that are complimentary. LiFi at the same time has also found a lot its home in the defense and government and RF hostile environments with large deployments happening over the last few few years, such as secure office spaces. And as we progress into the short and medium term, we see an increased uptake of LiFi in particular for industrial environments, advertising and tourism, smart buildings, industry 4.0 enterprise grade wireless solutions, and eventually leading to what we all hope is the mass market adoption where every single smartphone is LiFi enabled, and everybody's using LiFi on a daily basis”.
Nikola Serafimovski concluded his presentation with the following:
“So with that, you know, we've had a lot of movement moving forward in particular Gtech announcing the world's first integrated LiFi enabled tablet. There have been multiple test beds, with aircraft industry announcing brand new integration of LiFi with Airbus and Signify into hotspots into planes. We've had a lot of VTV announcements as well. So there's a huge uptake in field trials, deployments and real use cases across hospitals, industry, 4.0, aerospace logistical centres and more. The LCA has gained seven additional members after a rocky start in 2020, with COVID hitting us immediately after the kickoff. But we've managed to increase the visibility of the ecosystem. We've expanded our relationship with your organisations and we're open to new members. And we really, really hope that all of you can find time and find the willingness to join us and help us as we move forward in bringing LiFi to the mass market”.
You can also watch the 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 into 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:
Credit to pureLiFi
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