Light Communication Technology: An Enabling Technology for

Sustainable Wired and Wireless Solutions

D. Chiaroni

, S. Leroux

, M. Fleschen

, B. Berde

, F. Abdeldayem

, N. Serafimovski

, H. Nikol

N. Delaunay

, B. Béchadergue

, B. Azoulay

, S. Cordette

, S. Clement

, J. Tabu

, C. Lepers

and

H. Haas

Nokia Bell Labs, 12 rue Jean Bart, Massy, France

Orange Innovation, 40-48 Avenue de la République, 92320 Châtillon, France

Zero 1, 33 Rue Puits Romain, L-8070, Luxembourg

DU, Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company, PJSC. P.O. Box 502666, Dubai, U.A.E.

pureLiFi ,51 Timber Bush, Leith, Edinburgh EH6 6QH, U.K.

Signify Netherlands B.V. High Tech Campus 7, 5656 AE Eindhoven, The Netherlands

CEA LETI, 17 Av. des Martyrs, 38054 Grenoble, France

LISV, Université Paris-Saclay - UVSQ, 10-12 avenue de l'Europe, 78140 Vélizy-Villacoublay, France

OLEDCOMM, Centre Technologique, 10-12 avenue de l'Europe 78140 Vélizy-Villacoublay, France

Technology Innovation Institute, PO Box: 9639, Masdar City, Abu Dhabi, U.A.E.

Liberty Global, Griffin House, 161 Hammersmith Road, London, W6 8BS, U.K.

Crantec, 4740-223 Esposende, Portugal

SAMOVAR Laboratory, Télécom SudParis, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, Palaiseau, France

LiFi Research and Development Centre (LRDC), Electrical Engineering Division, 9 J J Thomson Avenue,

University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB3 0FA, U.K.

Keywords: Light Communication Technology, LiFi, Optical Camera Communication, Wi-Fi, Passive Optical Networks,

Optical Ring Network, Energy Savings, Sustainability, Fixed Network, Ethernet LAN, Optical Wired

Technologies, Optical Wireless Technologies.

Abstract: Optical wired and wireless technologies are analysed in this paper to address sustainable solutions for vertical

markets. After a description of the context, of the different technologies adopted, of use cases and their

associated services, this paper demonstrates through a comparative analysis with a classical Ethernet LAN

interconnecting Wi-Fi access points for a fixed network, that optical technologies in a heterogeneous context

can provide key added value services in a sustainable way.

1 INTRODUCTION

Because of the climate impact due to global CO

emissions, new industrial approaches are required at

different levels to reduce our emissions. Concerning

the Information Communication Technology (ICT),

the projection in term of electricity demand to the

worldwide electricity production could reach 20.9%

in 2030 according to figure 1 (Jones, 2018). Because

of an exponential growth of the electricity demand for

the network infrastructure and for the data centres

between 2020 and 2030, industrials have to react.

In addition, the increase of the electricity cost per

kWh when combined to a traffic growth in strong

acceleration associated with the perspective for new

technologies operating at higher frequencies (from

5G to 6G) can create blocking situations at the market

level and requires the identification of new

sustainable approaches to drive the next generation of

ICT products.

It is therefore important to identify technologies

that could help this evolution. For example, optical

technologies have the potential to reduce the

Chiaroni, D., Leroux, S., Fleschen, M., Berde, B., Abdeldayem, F., Seraﬁmovski, N., Nikol, H., Delaunay, N., Béchadergue, B., Azoulay, B., Cordette, S., Clement, S., Tabu, J., Lepers, C. and

Haas, H.

Light Communication Technology: An Enabling Technology for Sustainable Wired and Wireless Solutions.

DOI: 10.5220/0013291300003902

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Photonics, Optics and Laser Technology (PHOTOPTICS 2025), pages 133-141

ISBN: 978-989-758-736-8; ISSN: 2184-4364

133

Figure 1: Projection of the ICT electricity demand (Jones,

2018).

electricity consumption of ICT illustrated by three

concrete examples:

• The optical transmission systems have already

demonstrated their capabilities to offer high

energy efficient systems. By combining Time

Division Multiplexing (TDM), Wavelength

Division Multiplexing (WDM) and potentially

Spatial Division Multiplexing (SDM), it is then

possible to transport ultra-high data capacities at

a minimum energy.

• The introduction of optical bypasses in networks

offered by the Optical Add/Drop Multiplexer

(OADM) technology suppress a lot of Opto-

Electro-Optic (OEO) conversions in the

passthrough and minimise then the electronic

processing. This optical transparency offered in

the passthrough of OADMs is today exploited in

the metro and in the core to have low energy

consumption optical communication

transmission systems and low latency networks.

• Optical wireless communication systems: Light

Fidelity (LiFi) or Optical Camera

Communication (OCC)) have also a high

potential to reduce the energy consumption of

end-to-end systems. As an example, a Vertical

Cavity Emitting Laser (VCSEL) used for some

generations of LiFi systems exhibits only few

100fJ/bit (Si-Cong, 2023), and laser array-based

adopting a Multiple Inputs Multiple Outputs

(MIMOs) scheme for an ultra-high bite rate

access point can require less than 2 Watts for an

aggregated bit rate close to 2 Tbps leading to an

energy efficiency close to 1pJ/bit (Haas, 2023).

The previous remarks indicate that it is of interest

to analyse different end-to-end solutions and to see

how the optical technology could contribute to design

a sustainable 6G technology.

In this paper after a recall of the main challenges

that are in front of us, and a rapid state of the art

demonstrating the high potential of optical

technologies, we will analyse the combination of

optical wired and wireless technologies focused on

the fixed access part of verticals for hospitals,

commercial centres and for the Industry 4.0.

After a description of the assumptions, we will

present the potential gains in terms of electricity

consumption of an optical end-to-end solution when

compared to a reference scenario (classical Local

Area Network (LAN) and Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi)).

We will then analyse the impact of a

heterogeneous case where different access point

technologies coexist to offer added value services at

a minimum energy consumption. Finally, the

conclusion will draw some perspectives for a

positioning of this optical technology.

2 CHALLENGES RECALL

The acceptable electricity demand to the grid of the

ICT by 2030 has been estimated with the data of

(Jones, 2018) and (Ritchie and Rosato, 2024).

Figure 2: Projection made in 2030 by adopting a linear

production evolution aligned with the two previous

decades.

If we fix a reduction of the electricity demand of

50% by 2030 (value adopted by several operators)

with respect to the projected value: 8,200 TWh, we

can estimate then an electricity demand of the ICT

close to 4,100 TWh.

In 2020 the electricity demand of the ICT was close

to 2,878 TWh according to (Jones, 2018) for a global

electricity production of 26,190 TWh representing a

percentage of electricity demand of 10.98%.

With a reduction of 50% of the electricity demand

by 2030, and an estimated worldwide production of

electricity close to 33,500 TWh (linear assumption

made according to figure 2) then the percentage of

electricity demand could become 12.23%. This is

required to recontrol the electricity demand to the grid

and create new market opportunities by adopting new

sustainable approaches.

However, to reach a reduction of the electricity

demand of the ICT of 50% a strategy in four steps has

PHOTOPTICS 2025 - 13th International Conference on Photonics, Optics and Laser Technology

134

to be adopted.

The four steps driving a short, medium and long-

term strategy could be:

1. Massive adoption of new eco-design rules

including the software, the hardware, the

adoption of longer life cycles and the adoption of

a circular economy to reduce as much as possible

the footprint. A new methodology is then

required to lead to the optimal solution for each

use case.

2. Deploy micro-grids, when possible, to produce

locally and reduce then the electricity demand to

the grid. This step can be applied to already

deployed network elements or for the new

products adopting step 1.

3. Adopt efficient storage with zero CO

emission

to secure an electricity continuity delivery when

the national grid is in failure.

4. Limit the wasted energies, though an optimized

design of a solution, but also by converting any

form of wasted energy into electricity.

We recall that according to figure 1, the two parts

of the ICT that need to be optimized are the network

infrastructure and the Data Centers (DC):

• For the network infrastructure we need to

distinguish the vertical/enterprise and the public

network infrastructure. For the public network,

the mobile network is the most representative

since it could contribute to 72% of the overall

electricity bill of an operator.

• For the DCs two main sub-systems are

dominating the energy consumption of a DC: the

cooling system and the servers of data are close

to 80% for big DC (figure 3 and (Rong, 2016)).

Figure 3: Repartition of the energy consumption of a data

center according to (Rong, 2016).

Because the use of one unique technology can

lead to an over dimensioning of the solution when

pushing the technology beyond its own limits, it is

then important to analyze the role of a complementary

technological approach. And it is already the case

today where Wavelength Division Multiplexing

(WDM) links or Passive Optical Networks (PONs)

are proposed for the FrontHauling (FH) or XHauling

(XH) part of a Radio Access Network (RAN). The

objective is then to include, when necessary, an

optical technology in an end-to-end solution to drive

high performance systems with added value services

at a minimum energy consumption. In this paper, we

analyze then the potential of wired and wireless

optical technologies to anticipate concrete solutions

for an optical converged fixed and mobile network

(IOWN, 2022).

3 USE CASES AND SERVICES

TARGETED

3.1 Use Cases

Because end-user have access to two technologies: a

radio frequency technology (4G/5G and tomorrow

6G) but also a fixed technology today mainly based

on PONs, it becomes relevant to analyze an integrated

technology from the end-user up to the aggregation

node to connect anything at any time with the correct

Quality of Service (QoS) for an acceptable Quality of

Experience (QoE) in a full flexible way. For this

analysis we will be focused on the fixed network part

for three specific use cases: Commercial centers to

offer a low cost and a low energy consumption end-

to-end solution; hospitals for their specificities (in

some places of a hospital High Frequencies (HF) are

not tolerated/possible); the Industry 4.0. requiring

ultra-high bit rate connections to process data and to

optimize the productivity of a factory. Even if the

focus was on three use cases, the solution proposed

has the potential to cover a larger scope.

3.2 Requirements and Services

Targeted

For the three precited use cases, the requirements and

the service targeted are the followings:

• Commercial center: need to provide a low Total

Cost Ownership (TCO) network infrastructure

with accurate in-door positioning, and highly

secured data transmission.

• Hospitals: need for a data transmission continuity

in the wireless domain, from 5G/6G at the

periphery of the hospitals, to Wi-Fi in the public

waiting rooms, to LiFi or any light

communication technology inside the building

when RF is blocked. We need to offer different

services from moderate bit rates to persons inside

intense care rooms, to high bit rate connections

Light Communication Technology: An Enabling Technology for Sustainable Wired and Wireless Solutions

135

offering ultra-low latencies in surgery rooms.

• Industry 4.0.: need for solutions offering diverse

services, massive connectivity, easy capacity

upgrade, ultra-low latencies for deterministic

services and Machine-to-Machine (M2M)

communication offer. The technology

complementarity is here extremely important not

to over dimension one technology.

4 LIGHT COMMUNICATION

TECHNOLOGIES

4.1 Light Communication Technologies

In this paper we will consider two types of light

communication technologies: the LiFi and the OCC

technologies.

• LiFi technology is a bidirectional technology

requiring an additional physical layer

(transponder including Light Emitting Diodes

(LEDs) or VCSELs and Photodetector(s)) and in

some versions a new data link layer (new

Medium Access Control (MAC) layer). The

spectrum exploited for this technology includes

the Visible Light (VL) (350 nm – 700 nm), but

also the InfraRed (IR) spectrum (800 – 1000 nm).

Typically, IR is used for the upstream traffic. For

the downstream traffic, either VL or IR light can

be used depending on the use case. The

technology delivers a user experience

substantially similar to Wi-Fi except using the

light spectrum, offering potential high data rate,

mobility, handover and more. One standard, the

IEEE 802.11bb, targets a mass market by

adopting an optical antenna instead of a RF

antenna and is based on the Wi-Fi protocols.

• The OCC technology describes a unidirectional

technology exploiting the camera as a

photodetector associated with an application able

to interpret the information received to be easily

exploited by the user through a graphic interface.

The light signal is in the visible domain for

classical cameras. The bit rate is limited to the

potential of the camera technology. The OCC

technology can be summarized as follows:

o Wireless communications

o Offering In-door positioning capabilities

o Decoding of data from embedded cameras of

a smartphone

o Based on the standard: IEEE 802.15.7

Services offered:

o Geo mapping

o Data analysis

o Location based services

4.2 Infra-Red (IR) versus Visible Light

(VL)

The type of the source is a key question. With the

massive deployment of Light Emitting Diodes

(LEDs) in all the spaces (from the residential part to

the public area) it is important to analyse two

scenarios: one exploiting the existing VL provided by

a LED lighting, and another one based on IR source

when the LED-based light is off, or when sun lighting

is dominating a space. For that last scenario, we need

then to add a new source: an IR source that needs to

be added in the energy budget. To minimise their

impact, the IR sources considered will be VCSELs for

their high energy efficiency and their low energy

consumption.

4.3 Perspectives of Deployment: FWA,

Full Deployment, Business-to-

Business (BTB) and Business-to-

Customer (BTC)

The LiFi technology requires standards for a massive

deployment. For example, the IEEE 802.11bb

standard is targeting this objective and other

standards are currently discussed for further

deployments. The deployment has started for fixed

wireless access, and for dedicated applications,

generally for BTB applications. The integration

tomorrow of chipsets in terminals (smart phones or

personal computers) at a large scale will be a major

catalyst for a BTC market. In the following, we will

then analyse a deployment of this new technology in

a BTB scenario and for a Fixed Wireless Access

(FWA) configuration in the majority of use cases

considered and for a full deployment for a restricted

space (hospital use case mainly).

The OCC technology offering a geo-localization

service is already targeting a BTC market, since this

technology is compatible with a majority of smart

phones, and since we can find on the apple store or in

the android store applications to support OCC services.

5 OPTICAL NETWORKS

5.1 Optical Network Technologies

Considered

Optical networks are today deployed in the pure fixed

PHOTOPTICS 2025 - 13th International Conference on Photonics, Optics and Laser Technology

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access part or in the metro and backbone part. For the

pure access part, PONs are massively adopted to offer

a Fibre-To-The-Home (FTTH) technology. If the

Gigabit PON (G-PON) is massively used in Europe,

other versions of PONs are also on the market. We

find also the 10x Gigabit Symmetrical PON (XGS-

PON), the 100G-PON and higher bit rates are under

study. For the backbone, Reconfigurable Optical

Add/Drop Multiplexers (R-OADMs) nodes are

massively deployed to offer a transport optical

network on the top of Multi-Protocol Label Switching

over Internet Protocol (MPLS/IP) Switch/Routers. In

this paper we will be focused more on the

technologies developed for the access part or for the

FH/XH. Another technology proposed for the RAN

in a physical ring topology adopting OADM-based

nodes for targeting the interconnection of cell sites to

the Base Band Unit (BBUs). When targeting an

optical convergence fixed-mobile it is then important

to address topologies different from the tree topology

as used for PONs and envisage bus or ring topologies

to offer new services like M2M services enabled for

example by a broadcast-and-select technique.

Finally, we note that FTTH technologies based on

PONs have already demonstrated their potential to

minimise the electricity demand when compared to

other technologies (5kWh/line for the FFTH to

compare to 15kWh/line for the ADSL technology or

to compare to 50kWh/line for the 3G/4G in 2019)

(Perrufel, 2022).

5.2 Passive Optical Networks and

Passive Optical LAN (POL)

Figure 4(a): G-PON used for a Passive Optical LAN.

Figure 4(b): POL versus Ethernet LAN.

Table 1: Specificities of the Ethernet Switch node

considered and of the X-Cast WDM Add/Drop Multiplexer

node.

Port attributes

Ethernet Switch:

S5800-8TF12S

X-Cast

WDM

ADM

1GbE port

8xRJ45 auto-

sensing

---

100GbE CFP2 (10

channels at 10Gb

)

0 1

10GbE SFP+ Ports 12 2

Performance

Ethernet Switch:

S5800-8TF12S

X-Cast

WDM

ADM

node

Switch Fabric

acit

240 Gbps 1 Tbps

Forwarding Rate 179 Mbps

10 Gpbs

for the

control

channel)

Latency 1700ns

2000ns

max.

Switching method

Store and

Forwar

Broadcast-

-select

Unit Weight

5kg (include one

PSU)

< 2 kG

Operating T°

0 to 45° (long

term)

0 to 45°

long term

Price estimated

(

Euros

)

4,159 1,598

Power consumption

estimated (W)

87,4 18

Optical Passive Networks (PON) have several

advantages, like their capabilities to transport high

capacities, with high energy efficiencies. Figure 4(a)

shows the technology based on a PON and figure 4(b)

shows the possible gain in CAPEX and OPEX when

comparing a Passive Optical LAN (POL) with a

classical Ethernet LAN.

POL can save energies with respect to classical

LAN. Comparatives studies have demonstrated the

possibility to reduce by 82% the electricity

consumption of a POL with respect to an Ethernet

LAN. And the advantages are multiple: Fiber size

smaller than a CATx cable used for Ethernet. The

optical fibre offers large bit rates or easy capacity

increase and their lifetime is in the range of 50 years.

It is an eco-designed solution since a PON is partly

made with a fibre infrastructure designed for a long-

life cycle, and the modularity located at the periphery

of the network allows easy upgrades to follow the

evolution of the demand. In summary, PONs have a

high potential in terms of energy consumption

reduction when compared to classical Ethernet LANs.

Light Communication Technology: An Enabling Technology for Sustainable Wired and Wireless Solutions

137

5.3 Optical Ring Network

Figure 5(a) shows another optical network topology:

a ring or a bus. We are considering here a new

generation of Optical networks based on simple and

amplified Optical Add/Drop Multiplexers (OADMs)

(figure 5(b)).

• Simplified Optical Add/Drop Multiplexer nodes

(based on optical couplers and an optical

amplifier).

• Structure offering Cross-cast (X-Cast)

functionalities.

• Support of a circuit or a packet transfer mode.

• Optical transparency in the path through for a

minimum power consumption.

Figure 5(a): Optical ring network.

Figure 5(b): Optical Add/Drop node structure.

Figure 5(c) illustrates the global structure of the

network proposed.

Figure 5(c): Key features of the network.

In the analysis we have adopted a simple

OADMs, including mainly optical couplers and a

semiconductor optical amplifier. A first comparison

shows that it is a 10x technology when compared to a

pure Ethernet technology since the optical bypass

implemented for the transit traffic avoid a large

number of line cards and transceivers. As for the

PON, a capacity upgrade does not impose a

replacement of all the network elements in the optical

solution since some network elements are designed

for a long-life cycle like the optical fibres but also the

OADMs.

Figure 6 shows the gain that can be obtained in

terms of energy consumption, when comparing an

optical ring network for LAN applications and a

classical Ethernet LAN.

Figure 6: Optical Ring LAN versus LAN.

We notice that the power consumption can be

reduced by more than 69% with respect to the

classical LAN solution.

Both optical technologies: PON and optical rings

networks are then good candidates for designing end-

to-end solutions.

6 COMPARISON: PASSIVE

OPTICAL NETWORK VERSUS

OPTICAL RING NETWORK

WITH ADDED VALUE NEW

SERVICES

6.1 Fixed Network for In-Building Use

Cases

For the study we will compare an Ethernet LAN +

Wi-Fi access points and an optical network (PON or

Optical Ring) with different access point

technologies: Wi-Fi + LiFi + OCC.

For the quantification we adopted the following

assumptions:

• Surface considered: 5,000 m² (100x50 m²).

• Number of Wi-Fi access points: 25 for a surface

PHOTOPTICS 2025 - 13th International Conference on Photonics, Optics and Laser Technology

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connectivity of 200 m².

• Number of LiFi Access Points (AP): 12 in a

FWA configuration, 250 for full deployment.

• Number of OCC access points: 200 (every 5

meters).

For the Wi-Fi access points (WatchGuard, 2024):

• Wi-Fi 6 2x2: Power peak at 10.9 W.

• Wi-Fi 6 2x2 including radio of security: Power

peak at 15.9 W.

• Wi-Fi 6 4x4: Power peak at 19.5W, close to 20

W (value adopted for the calculations).

For the Wi-Fi repeater we adopted 2.6W.

The LiFi technology is deployed according to two

scenarios:

• In a FWA configuration to offer BTB services.

• In a full deployment scenario in the space

considered, to offer BTC services and

anticipating the presence of LiFi chipsets in

terminals.

Both scenarios include an association also with OCC

for BTC services to offer added value services.

In the study we will consider an optical network

(PON or Optical Ring) associated with:

• Wi-Fi for full coverage for the reference and for

the optical solutions.

• LiFi in FWA when there is a need for new

services (for more security, for more bit rate,

when RF is not allowed) only for the optical

solutions.

• OCC exploiting the existing lighting to offer in-

door positioning/geo-localisation services only

also for the optical solutions.

6.2 Estimation of the Global Power

Consumption per Technology

Backbone Only:

For the Ethernet solution we assume 10 Ethernet

switches leading to:

- A total cost of 41,590 Euros.

- A total power consumption of 874 W.

For the optical ring network based on X-Cast

WDM ADM we assume 10 access nodes to

interconnect imposing ten optical nodes, and one

Ethernet switch (interconnection node) leading to a

total power consumption of 267.4 W.

Global Solution:

For the global solution we take into account the

backbone and the access points.

For the Ethernet LAN, for the optical solution

adopting a Passive Optical LAN (based on a

100GPON) or an optical ring network and Wi-Fi +

LiFi + OCC access points we have:

For the Access Points:

• Wi-Fi access points: 500 W.

• LiFi FWA points: 11 W (for the 12 drivers

only). We assume an existing VL LED lighting

system not included in the power budget.

• OCC access points: 50 W (250 mW max.

estimated for one OCC driver).

For the Backbone:

• Ethernet LAN: 874 W

• Passive Optical LAN: 220 W

• Optical ring networks: 267.4 W

For the End-to-End Solutions:

• Ethernet LAN + WiFi: 1,374 W

• POL + Wi-Fi + LiFi FWA + OCC: 761 W

• OR + Wi-Fi + LiFi FWA + OCC: 828.4 W

Figure 7 gives an estimation of the power

consumption of each solution analyzed:

Figure 7: Comparison PON and Optical Ring Network with

respect to Ethernet LANs.

We observe that the ring topology increases

lightly the energy consumption when compared to a

POL. However, the ring topology offers new services

like M2M and provides higher capacity upgrades

while being retro-compatible with POLs (possibility

to multiplex a tree topology on the top of a ring

topology). The Optical Ring/Bus network represents

then an interesting candidate for wired and wireless

solutions.

7 ANALYSIS OF THREE USE

CASES

7.1 Description of the Use Cases

We analyse here three use cases: Hospitals or nuclear

power plants, commercial centres and Industry 4.0.

Light Communication Technology: An Enabling Technology for Sustainable Wired and Wireless Solutions

139

• For use case 1 we assume that Electro-Magnetic

(EM) emissions are constrained in hospitals. The

EM waves are blocked in some areas of the

hospital stopping the data continuity. In that

particular use case, we compare then a solution

based on a POL (based on a XGS-PON) and on

a fully deployed LiFi technology in a specific

area with respect to a classical LAN and a Wi-Fi

technology.

• For use case 2, typically commercial centres,

different technologies for added value services at

low energy consumption are considered. This is

a use case where the complementarity is really

important. In that use case we adopt then a POL

(based on a XGS-PON) for the fixed backbone

part and LiFi FWA + Wi-Fi + OCC.

• For use case 3, typically the industry 4.0., a

technology complementarity is also required. For

that use case we adopte a ring optical network

(with 10 Gbps access points) but supporting a

100 Gbps path through to support M2M

communications. For the access points we

assume a deployment of three access

technologies: Wi-Fi, LiFi FWA and OCC. The

LiFi deployment is considered only for a FWA

configuration and is dedicated to the

communication between the production

machines and the network access points located

in the ceiling. The Wi-Fi is used for mobility and

to offer a large coverture. The OCC is used for

the geo-localisation of robots.

For the three use cases, we adopted LiFi emitting in

the VL domain or in the IR domain. For the LiFi IR

we added the energy consumption of a new IR source

which explains the difference with respect to the VL

case.

In summary we analyse:

• Optical networks: POL or Optical rings LAN.

• Wi-Fi offering full coverage,

• LiFi in a FWA configuration when there is a need

for new services (for more security, for more bit

rate, when RF is not allowed),

• OCC to exploit the existing lighting to offer in-

door positioning,

7.2 Results Obtained for the Three Use

Cases Considered

We present here the results obtained (Figure 8)

comparing heterogeneous technologies with a Wi-Fi

technology associated to an Ethernet LAN.

Figure 8: Energy consumption gain for the three use cases

analysed.

When RF is not tolerated (like in hospitals), then

the solution could be a combination of POL and LiFi

(VL or IR). We observe, in the first scenario, that the

electricity consumption gain could be close to 62%

with respect to the reference scenario.

For commercial centres or airports, use case 2,

there is a need to offer multi-services at low energy

consumption. The association of Wi-Fi, LiFi in FWA

(private pods are examples) and OCC is highly

energy efficient. We demonstrate the possibility to

offer more services at a low energy consumption

thanks to the adoption of wired and wireless optical

technologies.

For the industry 4.0, we assumed a global

coverture through Wi-Fi, Optical ring networks to

offer a sustainable backbone offering a convergence

fixed-mobile, allowing M2M communications, and

OCC for accurate in-door positioning of robots. LiFi

IR FWA is adopted for highly secured high bit rate

communications between production machines and

the ceiling. 5G and 6G IoT complete the

requirements. The technology complementarity is

here quite efficient to offer multiple services

combining LC and RF and to reinforce the security of

sensitive data. It contributes also to limit the over

dimensioning of the RF technology. We observe that

the energy gain is less than for the two previous use

cases but still higher than 40%.

8 CONCLUSIONS

We showed that the combination of wired and

wireless optical technologies can provide significant

advantages in terms of electricity demand reductions

in addition to potential cost reductions and new

service offers.

Optical networks based on PONs or optical

rings/bus are excellent candidates to build an optical

backbone for the interconnection of different

PHOTOPTICS 2025 - 13th International Conference on Photonics, Optics and Laser Technology

140

networks elements (small cells or fixed access points)

at a low TCO.

Light Communication (LC) technologies offer

new possibilities in complementarity to Wi-Fi

technologies and pave the way to a better energy

efficiency. In the majority of deployments, it can be

the optimal solution to offer a high QoS at a low

energy consumption. The deployment will have to

support heterogeneous configurations and LC is fully

adapted to this heterogeneity (Perrufel M., 2021).

The LC technology has definitively strong

advantages like better security (the light does not

cross the walls) and less power consumption.

For EM sensitive environments, the LiFi

technology becomes an alternative to a Wi-Fi and

more generally to a RF technology to create a

continuity of service. The figure 8 showed that the

association LiFi and OCC interconnected with an

optical backbone is saving energies when compared

to a Wi-Fi + Ethernet LAN solution. For this use case,

POL are better positioned than Optical Ring LANs.

For commercial centres, the combination of

different access point technologies is an efficient

solution to offer new services at low energy. In that

case, LiFi is deployed following a B2B market

scheme, to have distributed points of information,

through a FWA approach.

For the industry 4.0., here again, FWA makes

sense, since there is a need for highly secured data

communication between the production machines

and the network. For the global coverture, the Wi-Fi

can be used. OCC could be mandatory for the guiding

of the robotic part. The new performance offered by

the LiFi technology (high bit rates at high security) is

the main catalyst for the solution adoption.

In general, for in-buildings the combination of

optical networks, and heterogeneous access points

will offer definitively new advantages and has the

potential to provide a concrete answer to the

electricity demand reduction needed as identified in

the first part of this paper. Optical wired and wireless

technologies pave definitively the path to sustainable

solutions.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Acknowledgments to all the LCA members for the

fruitful discussions.

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