Luxtron LiFi
Luxtron LiFi is a network enhancement tool that benefits wireless device users by offering economical network access, faster data transfer, increased user capacity, and by offering a more robust connection throughout the network. Unlike traditional hard-wire and wireless cellular networks, Luxtron LiFi is speed efficient, sustainable, and versatile.
Tyler Bryk, Michael Eng, Simas Glebavicius, James O'Brien, Stephen Opet
For the past twenty years, wireless communication technology has found its role in the economy and society to be ever-increasing - observations from the past two decades report a constant doubling in demand for data rates and connected devices every eighteen months, producing a growth rate proportional to Moore’s Law known as "Edholm's law of bandwidth". Using this rate to project future demand, wireless networks produced in the next decade can be expected to maintain data rates unsustainable by contemporary technologies, such as 4G cellular and IEEE 802.11 LANs. To remedy the impending issue of a congested RF band, new technologies are being developed to extend bandwidth by leveraging unused frequencies beyond the traditional RF spectrum. For instance, the 5G cellular network intends to use millimeter waves ranging from "hundreds of megahertz to several GHz", while terahertz communication is looking to utilize low-frequency infrared in the 0.3-3THz range. One particular technology of interest is poised to provide substantial benefits to local area networks: it is Light Fidelity (LiFi), operating on the band of visible light from 400THz - 700THz.
LiFi technology has been investigated as a solution to a handful of different use cases, including indoor positioning, inter-vehicular communications in a smart automobile grid, and hybrid augmentations to WiFi local area networking (LANs). This project will develop a LiFi transceiver for the final case, wherein bidirectional radios are used in conjunction with existing IEEE 802.11 technologies to augment LAN connectivity. Implementing such a design will enable faster communications between locally connected devices. It will offer faster data transfer speeds and increase user capacity while providing a secure connection that cannot be penetrated through walls.