LEDs Magazine recently reported that engineers from Cisco are now claiming that light-based communications, known as LiFi, is gaining the capabilities to work around corners and be securely pre-coded to end devices.

Li-Fi, or light fidelity, is a technology that uses modulated light waves from LEDs or lasers to transmit data. It is like Wi-Fi in that it provides wireless internet connections, except where Wi-Fi uses radio waves (RF), Li-Fi uses visible light or IR.

The IEEE has been working on a standard for Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS) as a way to intentionally redirect radio signals in complicated deployments. A research paper in March, whose authors include LiFi pioneer Dr. Harald Haas, claim that RIS-equipped Li-Fi environments ‘can lead to enhanced physical leader security’ in several different ways. For example, an RIS system can detect intruders, and then emit artificial noise in the intruder’s direction as a jamming technique. RIS elements can be pre-coded in a way that only legitimate users can decode, the authors state.

LiFi RIS can create a wireless network that only works with designated devices, allowing for an ‘intentional’ approach to network design. Radio waves don’t offer this type of precision.

The full article can be read here.

David Shiller

David Shiller is the Publisher of LightNOW, and President of Lighting Solution Development, a North American consulting firm providing business development services to advanced lighting manufacturers. The ALA awarded David the Pillar of the Industry Award. David has co-chaired ALA’s Engineering Committee since 2010. David established MaxLite’s OEM component sales into a multi-million dollar division. He invented GU24 lamps while leading ENERGY STAR lighting programs for the US EPA. David has been published in leading lighting publications, including LD+A, enLIGHTenment Magazine, LEDs Magazine, and more.

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