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A Research Team From The IMDEA Networks Institute Introduces The PassiveLiFi, A Battery-Free System That Uses LiFi To Transmit RF Backscatter
Muhammad Sarmad Mir, PhD Student at IMDEA Networks and one of the authors of the scientific paper “PassiveLiFi: Rethinking LiFi for Low-Power and Long Range RF Backscatter” - Photo credit to IMDEA Networks
A research team, led by Domenico Giustiniano, Research Associate Professor at IMDEA Networks Institute, Madrid, has introduced. PassiveLiFi, a battery-free system that uses LiFi to transmit RF backscatter at a meagre power budget. In their recently published paper, they demonstrated that LiFi and RF backscatter are complementary and have unexplored interactions.
The research team addresses many challenges on the system design in the LiFi transmitter, the tag and the RF receiver. They designed the first LiFi transmitter that implements a chirp spread spectrum (CSS) using the visible light spectrum. They also use a small bank of solar cells for communication and harvesting and reconfigure them based on the amount of harvested energy and desired data rate. They further alleviate the low responsiveness of solar cells with a new low-power receiver design in the tag. Experimental results with an RF carrier of 17 dBm show that they can generate RF backscatter with a range of 80.3 meters/𝜇W consumed in the tag, which is almost double with respect to prior work.
You can read their paper on the following link:
https://dspace.networks.imdea.org/handle/20.500.12761/1541
“Our work opens the door to long-range, battery-free Internet of Things applications retrofitting lighting infrastructure for communication, something that was not previously possible to achieve. It’s the result of three years of research; when we started, LiFi technology and RF backscattering were considered independent technologies, and we have shown that LiFi can solve the limitations of RF backscatter, and that Li Fi can be applied to a new field, battery-free communication” says Dr. Giustiniano. The IMDEA Networks team (formed by Domenico Giustiniano, Borja Genovés Guzmán, and Muhammad Sarmad Mir) has enjoyed the collaboration of Dr. Ambuj Varshney (Uppsala University, and soon to be Assistant Professor at the National University of Singapore).
“Solar cells have been widely used to harvest energy. In this work, we go a step further and demonstrate that they can be used efficiently and simultaneously as both a source of power harvesting and as a communications receiver. Our solution solves the trade-off between the captured energy required by the IoT device and the desired data rate, allowing our system to operate without using batteries,” says Borja Genovés Guzmán, Post-Doc Researcher at IMDEA Networks and one of the co-authors of the scientific paper.
IMDEA Networks Institute
IMDEA Networks Institute was legally constituted under Spanish law at the end of 2006 as a public, not-for-profit Foundation. It is governed by a Board of Trustees, consisting of representatives from the various stakeholders in the Institute.
The full, registered name of the Institute is Fundación IMDEA Networks. The Institute is registered in the Register of Foundations of the Autonomous Region of Madrid (Registro de Fundaciones de la Comunidad de Madrid), personal sheet number 476.
Photo credit to IMDEA Networks Institute
IMDEA* Networks Institute is a research organisation on data networks whose multinational team is engaged in cutting-edge fundamental science and technology. As an English-speaking institute located in Madrid, Spain, IMDEA Networks offers a unique opportunity for pioneering scientists to develop their research vision. IMDEA Networks has established itself internationally at the forefront in the development of future network principles and technologies. Their team of highly-reputed researchers is designing and creating today the networks of tomorrow.
According to their site, some keywords that define them are as followed:
5G, Big Data, blockchain and distributed ledgers, cloud computing, content-delivery networks, data analytics, energy-efficient networks, fog and edge computing, indoor positioning, Industry 4.0, Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning, millimeter-wave communication, mobile computing, network economics, network measurements, network security, networked systems, network protocols and algorithms, network virtualization (software defined networks – SDN and network function virtualization – NFV), privacy, social networks, underwater networks, vehicular networks, wireless networks and more…
Their mission is to create value by leading research in protocol, algorithm and systems developments that enable the Digital Knowledge Society. they do this by conducting research and developing innovative and useful scientific and technical advances in the above areas, while actively promoting their successful transfer to market. The Institute strives to provide optimal working conditions and the most attractive and best-equipped environment in which researchers can focus on this process of innovation and scientific advance.
IMDEA Networks focuses on an area that has a profound impact on people’s lives. Over the last decades, the Internet, smartphones, Wi-Fi and social networks transformed society and the economy. Indeed, the widespread access to networks has dramatically changed the way manufacturers produce and supply their goods, how public administrations operate, how professionals work and in general how individuals and society are shaped. The Internet socio-economic phenomenon continues to transform our lives at an amazing pace, and will continue to do so in the future with the deployment of new communication technologies and paradigms.
What is Li Fi?
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 Signify
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:
Credit to pureLiFi
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