Smart-lighting technology means your house lights could communicate with your stereo. Professor Thomas Little of Boston University would like your house lighting to communicate with your computer, TV, and even the heating thermostat. By piggybacking data communications on to LED lightbulbs, he hopes "smart lighting" will become the next generation of wireless communications technology. But has it got a hope against existing technologies? The replacement of existing bulbs with low-energy LEDs reduces carbon emissions while offering an opportunity for smart lighting.
Little anticipates smart-lighting data rates of "1Mbps to 10Mbps with visible light this year and a 100Mbps to 500Mbps range with future prototypes". Such speeds are impressive except for one thing: exactly how will smart "We expect it to be two-way with the use of LEDs at the receiver. In practice, the channel will be asymmetric – just like cable modems or DSL [broadband] systems – due to the overhead lighting being intended to distribute light and the receiver intended to be passive," he says. "At the receiving end we will use a smaller LED and will investigate other wavelengths if visible light proves annoying in the back channel."
lighting challenge two-way wireless home networking?
The concept of smart lighting may not stop indoors. Little is considering outdoor applications such as smart LED brake lights or even data-transmitting road signs. "LED lighting is a green technology. If we enable all future lighting to pro
vide network connectivity we will have a far deeper penetration than current wireless tech. We will do this without the additional energy cost of these other technologies," so being said by the researchers.
Little anticipates smart-lighting data rates of "1Mbps to 10Mbps with visible light this year and a 100Mbps to 500Mbps range with future prototypes". Such speeds are impressive except for one thing: exactly how will smart "We expect it to be two-way with the use of LEDs at the receiver. In practice, the channel will be asymmetric – just like cable modems or DSL [broadband] systems – due to the overhead lighting being intended to distribute light and the receiver intended to be passive," he says. "At the receiving end we will use a smaller LED and will investigate other wavelengths if visible light proves annoying in the back channel."
lighting challenge two-way wireless home networking?
The concept of smart lighting may not stop indoors. Little is considering outdoor applications such as smart LED brake lights or even data-transmitting road signs. "LED lighting is a green technology. If we enable all future lighting to pro
vide network connectivity we will have a far deeper penetration than current wireless tech. We will do this without the additional energy cost of these other technologies," so being said by the researchers.
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