All Signs Lead to LiFi

Alistair Banham, Sarah Scace, Ron Schaeffer and Mostafa Afgani

pureLiFi, 51 Timberbush, Leith, Edinburgh, EH6 6QH, Scotland, U.K.

Keywords: LiFi, Light Communications, Optical Wireless Communications.

Abstract: All signs lead to LiFi. Global communications requirements for greater bandwidth, reliable communications,

ultra-high speeds and unprecedented security can only be delivered by introducing LiFi to the communications

mix. Using light instead of radio waves to send and receive data, LiFi’s security, safety and bandwidth

advantages make it the right solution at the right time.

1 INTRODUCTION

LiFi is approaching a watershed moment in

communications. After an accelerated period of

maturation, embeddable LiFi components are now

available, and advancements in speed, cost reduction

and standardisation mean that LiFi is now ready for

those driving next generation consumer technologies

that will fill our homes, streets, offices, and public

spaces in the next few years.

pureLiFi and the United States Army rolled out

the world’s first largescale deployment of LiFi in

2021, and the same benefits of high capacity, low

latency and security that make LiFi attractive for

defence users carry over directly to mainstream use

cases.

Data hungry technologies such as AI, AR and IoT

connecting everything are in demand and on the rise.

The radio frequency (RF) spectrum is suffering from

increased congestion due to the increase in connected

devices, despite new spectrum being opened up.

Schools in several European countries including

France and Germany are banning the use of WiFi in

schools. Cyber security is no longer just a concern for

National Security; it’s now a concern for personal

security. All industries must now look beyond radio

frequencies and LiFi is ready.

2 LiFi CAN DELIVER THE NEXT

GENERATION OF USER

EXPERIENCES

The McKinsey Global Institute (Grijpink, et al.,

2020) estimates that only about 70% of the global

demand for digital connections leading up to 2030

will be satisfied by existing radio frequency (RF) and

related technologies, even with advancements such as

5G and WiFi 6. That leaves a market worth $600

billion for emerging—or “frontier” technologies like

LiFi. McKinsey says, “With its improved speed,

efficiency, latency and coverage, frontier connectivity

can produce the remainder by taking many existing

use cases to the next level—and paving the way for

entirely new ones that we cannot foresee today.”

(Grijpink, et al., 2020)

Unable to meet the future demand for wireless

communications, it’s clear that even cutting-edge RF

technologies face the fundamental challenge of

limited radio spectrum availability, often called the

“spectrum crunch”. (Scrogill, 2017) That’s where

light-based wireless technologies like LiFi step in to

bridge the gap, offering 2,600x greater capacity than

the radio spectrum.

Changing behaviours and emerging use cases will

ensure that exploding demand for digital connections

is not just a short-term blip on an otherwise steady

upward curve and that RF technologies will struggle

to cope. As the International Society for Optics and

Photonics points out (Venugopal, 2021), optical

wireless communication such as LiFi is set to play an

important part in 6

generation (6G) as what may now

seem like use cases straight out of science fiction

become commonplace. The challenge of conveying

emotion in the metaverse aptly demonstrates the

hurdles that RF may struggle to surmount.

“Consider that a realistic 3D hologram of a human

face requires 19.1 gigapixels. Updating these points

in real time to match gestures and expressions will

need a download rate of 1 terabit per second!

Banham, A., Scace, S., Schaeffer, R. and Afgani, M.

All Signs Lead to LiFi.

DOI: 10.5220/0011007000003121

In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Photonics, Optics and Laser Technology (PHOTOPTICS 2022), pages 213-217

ISBN: 978-989-758-554-8; ISSN: 2184-4364

213

Similarly, truly immersive augmented reality and

virtual reality require high data rates.”

Only LiFi—not RF—has a realistic chance of

reaching such high data rates. In fact, as part of an

international program called Terabit Bidirectional

Multi-user Optical Wireless System (TOWS) for 6G

LiFi, they hope to propel LiFi to an “eye-watering”

terabit per second as soon as 2024. (Pool, 2021)

The world is on track to need the speed and

capacity that only LiFi can deliver. Coupled with fast-

growing demand by those who are already connected,

further accelerated by the pandemic, McKinsey

estimates (Grijpink, et al., 2020) that an additional 2

billion users may come online by 2030.

2.1 LiFi Makes RF Better

One of the biggest influencers on user experience is

bandwidth. It is a common scenario for users in a

typical household to experience poor quality

connections due to multi-user effect. For example,

video conferencing calls can be throttled due to UHD

video streaming in another room. With the

introduction of new high bandwidth technologies

such as VR in the home, this scenario will only get

worse.

Current RF technologies are struggling to service

our increased demand for bandwidth. Over 2020 on

average users experienced an increase in video

buffering by 20%, an increase in video start failures

of 19% (Conviva) and a 100% increase in bad link

minutes (WiFi now global), all adding up to a

significant degradation in our collective user

experience online. Technologies such as WiFi-6 are

being introduced to combat these challenges,

however with limited spectrum the same challenges

of congested spectrum will imminently arise.

In 2018 pureLiFi demonstrated in a Scottish

school (Schofield, 2018) how LiFi can make Wi-Fi

networks more reliable and improve the user

experience. A LiFi network was deployed in a

classroom that regularly streamed high bandwidth

educational videos. By offloading bandwidth-heavy

content to the LiFi network, the neighbouring

classrooms benefited from more reliable WiFi

connections and therefore better user experiences.

LiFi in our homes will have the same benefits. A

simple way to introduce the benefits of LiFi to the

home is to create LiFi “bubbles” that are positioned

in locations of high bandwidth traffic, such as above

the TV or in home offices. LiFi could enable both

mobile access in these areas and also point to point

connectivity for streaming videos, connecting

accessories such as sound bars and gaming.

Figure 1: LiFi in use in a classroom at Kyle Academy in

Ayrshire Scotland.

By using LiFi-enabled devices and lights in high

bandwidth areas of the home it’s possible to stream

higher resolution videos and games while also

enabling more reliable WiFi network for everything

else we need to do online.

2.2 Enabling the Future of Immersive

Digital Realities

The use of AR and VR is on the rise not only for

consumer gaming but in manufacturing

environments. Lockheed Martin reports that the use

of AR and VR allows engineers to work 30 percent

faster and with an accuracy of up to 96 percent.

(Popular Mechanics, 2015) However, deploying new

mobile technology that requires high bandwidth, low

latency connections is a challenge as manufacturing

environments are notoriously highly congested RF

environments. Security is also a growing concern.

Providing LiFi connectivity at the point of need in

manufacturing environments can provide highly

reliable, low latency connections that are inherently

secure.

In the consumer marketplace, Facebook

announced their new name Meta in October 2021

reinforcing their strategy to deliver a truly immersive

metaverse to its users. As they explore the immersive

experience of the metaverse, users will both generate

and consume a huge volume of data -- at the edge and

at the data centre. Immersion demands an untethered

experience, and therefore that data must be delivered

wirelessly. Existing RF systems simply will not cope

due to their reliance on congested spectrum.

The metaverse will also demand ultra low, and

most importantly, consistent latency and jitter. The

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metaverse will be real time, so connectivity needs to

be real time, too. In testing. LiFi consistently delivers

much better performance on these key factors than

does WiFi. Figure 2 Illustrates tests performed by

pureLiFi comparing pureLiFi’s latest LiFi enabled

phones for WiFi vs LiFi performance. As illustrated

in real world scenarios LiFi performance is higher

speed, more consistent and reliable. The tests were

performed with identical smartphones operating on

the same single channel 802.11ac baseband.

Figure 2: Graph illustrating comparison between LiFi and

WiFi performance in pureLiFi’s LiFi enabled mobile

phone. Tests conducted in typically congested network

environment, sampled at 5 second intervals.

Light can be easily contained, and LiFi systems are

designed to provide a well-defined area of coverage

that does not interfere with neighbouring networks.

This allows LiFi networks to exist almost in isolation

even in heavily crowded environments. This isolated

nature of the network allows it to be immune to

ambient radio interference and deliver ultra-low

latency connections with a throughput that is highly

consistent. For this use case and so many others, LiFi

delivers wire-like connectivity in a wireless system.

3 PRIVACY IS PARAMOUT

Cybercrime is no longer only a concern for large

corporates and national security but a growing and

embedded aspect of modern digital culture that has

impact on consumer confidence. The CPX 360 survey

performed by iQor found that two-thirds (70 percent)

of consumers fear lack of adequate security in their

home networks could allow hackers to break in to

smart devices in their homes (iQoR, 2021).

Alarmingly NetScout also reported that Internet

of Things (IoT) devices are under attack five minutes

after they are powered up and are targeted by specific

exploits within 24 hours (Netscout, 2019).

In addition, while the latest 5G systems are being

deployed to meet increasing data demand, capacity,

and communications requirements, they are opening

up all new security vulnerabilities. The NSA released

a report in which they warned that the exponential

increase in IoT devices connecting to 5G networks is

only intensifying these vulnerabilities. (Defense.gov,

2021).

When it comes to security, consumers, employers

and industry are increasingly concerned about cyber

threats of the kind that LiFi can prevent or mitigate in

ways that RF cannot. LiFi provides inherent military

grade security while offering robust, fast and reliable

wireless communications. LiFi signals are not

accessible outside of a defined room or space,

because LiFi does not pass-through walls and can be

designed to be highly directional. LiFi can also be

contained to a defined cone of light. This unique

quality of LiFi means that communications are

inherently secure providing intentional connectivity.

Figure 3: WiFi vs LiFi Networks. WiFi leaking through

walls. LiFi contained. ©pureLiFi.

In contrast WiFi and other RF signals are susceptible

to eavesdropping from outside. As the FBI warned in

a Tech Tuesday bulletin on the risk of smart TVs, “At

the low end of the risk spectrum, they can change

channels, play with the volume, and show your kids

inappropriate videos. In a worst-case scenario, they

can turn on your bedroom TV's camera and

microphone, and silently cyberstalk you.” (Doffman,

2020).

3.1 Unprecedented Privacy for Home

Working

Researchers at Cardiff University and Southampton

University (Felstead & Reuschke, 2020) showed that

43% of the working population in the UK was

working from home by April 2020 as lockdowns

came into force, an eightfold increase from January

2020. And, of course, those workers were

100

200

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5 1015202530354045505560

Mbps

Seconds

LiFi Throughput WiFi Throughput

All Signs Lead to LiFi

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continuously accessing networked company

resources.

As lockdowns eased in June 2020, the researchers

found that (Felstead & Reuschke, 2020) the

proportion of homeworkers naturally fell, but only to

about 37%. That’s an early indicator that much

increased homeworking is here to stay even after the

pandemic. However, according to OpenVPN 54% of

IT managers consider remote workers to be a greater

security threat. (OpenVPN)

There is a growing need for secure, high

bandwidth and reliable communications in the home

office that is simple to implement. LiFi systems are

plug and play and are able to complement existing

WiFi and network infrastructure in the average home.

Self-contained LiFi systems can be provisioned by

employers for their home workers that allow only

wireless access to networked company resources via

a secure LiFi link.

Figure 4: Home worker using self-contained LiFi system

for connection to a company network.

Additionally, these unique LiFi access points can be

optimised to allow various levels of secure access to

information making information management less

complex. For example, LiFi link type “A” allows for

“Y” security level access and LiFi link “B” allows for

“X” Security level access.

If home working is going to remain a new normal,

then appropriately securing the employee’s home

office is essential and LiFi offers a military grade

security solution with low logistical impact.

Employers can now provide the tools to insist that

employees not only use approved company

equipment such as laptops and tablets, but they can

insist and enforce the use of approved wireless

networks at home.

3.2 Intentional Connectivity

While LiFi is a mobile wireless technology it can also

offer benefits when used as a point-to-point link.

Smartphones are increasingly being used to replace

our wallets and our keys while also containing our

most sensitive of data such as contacts, banking

information, location data, and all of our private

videos and photos. It’s natural that we also then need

to use our phones to not only share sensitive data but

to pay for items at shops or to open the doors to our

cars and even our homes. The technologies currently

used for these types of exchanges and transactions are

RF based such as NFC and Bluetooth. Not only are

they low bandwidth but they are also vulnerable to

eavesdropping and interception. LiFi allows for the

implementation of “intentional connectivity”

meaning that connections are only initiated when in

“line of sight” to the intended recipient. LiFi

connections cannot be passively hacked when a

phone is in a pocket or handbag, meaning that LiFi

exchanges from a phone have a very low probability

of interception or attack.

Figure 5: Two of pureLiFi's LiFi enabled mobile phones

sharing files securely.

This has secure applications for payments, digital

keys or passes and general phone to phone or phone

to anything secure data transfers.

4 CONCLUSIONS

Today there are 8.1 billion mobile subscriptions and

we consume globally 72 exabytes of data per month

and growing (Ericson 2021). While LiFi may not be

in every device and every light yet, LiFi components

are ready to be designed into the next generation of

mobile devices and mainstream access points.

The requirement for LiFi is clear the demand for

digital connections is exploding, cyber threats are

increasing and industry cooperation is growing, all

while RF spectrum congestion isn’t getting any

bigger. All signs point to LiFi and LiFi is ready.

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