LED Used in 800 Mbps Optical Wireless Connection

Doing away with cables is something that more or less the entire IT industry wants to accomplish, so any leap in wireless research is looked upon favorably, like the one that he Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich Hertz Institute HHI in Berlin, Germany, is bragging about.

One limitation that light has as far as data transmission goes is that, unless it is used in fiber optics, it can only send data if there are no obstacles in the way.

This line of sight limitation is major, but there are definitely applications that can benefit from the high transmission rates it can achieve.

In this particular instance, it is a group of researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich Hertz Institute HHI in Berlin, Germany, that have announced a breakthrough.

Simply put, they were able to utilize LED lighting in the EU's EU’s OMEGA Home Gigabit Access project.

Basically, the lighting units, using normal LEDs and a simple modulator (controls flickering) enable wireless communications of 800 Mbps.

The units have a 90 square foot range and need gadgets to just possess a simple photo diode if they are to pick up on it.

Unfortunately, this VLC (visible light communication) being a line of sight technology, the signal can easily fail if the signal diode is blocked or the photo diode shaded.

“The diode catches the light, electronics decode the information and translate it into electrical impulses, meaning the language of the computer,” said team expert Klaus-Dieter Langer.

“Using red-blue-green-white light LEDs, we were able to transmit 800 Mbit/s in the lab. That is a world record for the VLC method.”

As one of the best applications the team envisions, one should be able to light a room with the same object tasked to convey the information. Hospitals and other public venues are examples of where this VLC solution may serve best.