• H2020
• Industrial Leadership
• ICT

Researchers at Brunel University, London, UK, have secured funding to develop a wireless network that aims to fuse LiFi with mmWave technology.

The project builds upon the emerging visible light communications (LiFi) – or VLC – technology standard, using visible light to transmit data, and millimetre wave technology (mmWave), which has made an impact on what could be the 5G standard.

Organisers aim to demonstrate 10Gbps connections within homes and buildings with a delay of one millisecond.

The ‘remote radio-light head 5G’ project is led by Professor John Cosmas, who says that the ultra-low latency could revolutionise industrial applications such as in remote surgery, as well as increasing the viability of working from home.

Cosmas said that the hybrid LiFi system provides health benefits due to the decreased power requirements for data transmission, which as a result “could reduce the ill effects on humans and potentially lower incidence of tumours and leukaemia”.

LiFi bulls are installed in replacement of standard LEDs, which connect to a router via Ethernet and pass data to and from devices using a LiFi receiver.

Brunel University’s hybrid LiFi network would take this and add mmWave emitters and receivers into light fittings which would then communicate with the 5G radios of phones within the home.

Using around €710,200 from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme, Cosmas’ team aims to demonstrate the network in the Musée de la Carte à Jouer, Paris, and on the Madrid Underground over the next three years.