To support the necessary level of computerisation, digitisation and automation required by modern working environments, it’s indispensable to have smart technologies ready to support current and future operational challenges, such as the new application frontier that allows data to be transmitted through light: LiFi.

Panduit, Lainate (MI) – Competing with industry experts such as Panduit, a leader in infrastructure products and services for data networks and power applications, and Signify, a world leader in lighting for which we are a Certified System Integrator (Euronext: LIGHT), is always a source of opportunity and growth for a young innovative SME like ours. The participation of our CEO Francesco Paolo Russo, as Special Guest, allowed us to analyse from many points of view that phenomenon of ‘dematerialisation’ that in the last thirty years has led to a new dialogue between physical and digital in many workplaces, and above all to recount the many innovative aspects of LiFi technology.

Together with Gian Piero De Martino, Electrical and Network Infrastructure Business Unit Manager Panduit and Daniele Tordin, Technical System Engineer Panduit, we saw how, behind every delicate product and service, there is always an infrastructure with all its elements, often hidden, but not unimportant. The physical network makes possible a variety of applications that have become indispensable for everyone, such as communications, security, information and data transmission, environmental management, audio-video and lighting.

And how does LiFi fit into this picture? It’s simple: the evolution of transmission methods and media has not stopped at the sending of electrical signals through copper cables alone, but has seen the use of radio/wireless transmissions, data transfer through fibre optics through to the modulation of LED light to send and receive information in data format.

LiFi (Light Fidelity), in fact, is a cutting-edge technology that enables the transmission of data and information through visible and invisible frequencies. It is able to offer numerous advantages, including greater bandwidth and a high data transmission speed that today reaches 1Gb/s, and will reach, in 2025 according to industry studies, 1 Tbit/s. In the laboratory, these speeds are already being achieved today, which commercially will only be achieved with the advent of 6G, of which LiFi is a precursor as the sixth generation of connectivity will fully embrace the Thz frequencies of light.

This technology, using light and not emitting radio frequencies, can be used in sensitive and interference-hostile environments such as hospitals, aircraft and military bases. Furthermore, the use of a solution that uses light to provide connectivity, which by its very nature is confined within the limits of space and cannot overcome physical barriers, provides greater protection from potential hacker attacks from outside, making the transmission of information and data fast and secure. Another important feature of LiFi is its accuracy in terms of geolocalisation. It is possible to detect the position of a device, and therefore also of a user, with a margin of error of a few centimetres. This is a benchmark for the sector, especially considering that the most widely used technology for localisation to date is Bluetooth, which has error margins in the order of a metre.

Starting from this potential of LiFi, in To Be we have been carrying out intensive work on evangelising the technology for some years now in areas ranging from Healthcare to Education, from Cultural Heritage to Defence, and we have come to develop three application solutions: LiFi Geolocation, an indoor geolocation system that uses LED light modulation to define a user’s position extremely accurately, managing to enable, among other things, indoor navigation experiences; LiFi Streaming, a system for a two-way wireless connection to the PC and/or tablet network that is fast, secure and sustainable; LiFi Point To Point, a point-to-point communication system capable of providing wireless connectivity even over long distances, which can be used both indoors and outdoors.

To date, we have several very significant LiFi projects to our credit in different areas. Among the most important are the installations inside the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, Castel del Monte, the MArTA Museum in Taranto, the National Archaeological Museum in Altamura and the entire circuit of the Sac Museums, which have enriched visitors’ experience by allowing them to receive information on the various works on display directly on their smartphones through the LiFi Art App and to be guided through the exhibition thanks to LiFi’s accurate geolocation system.

In several Italian schools between Lazio and Marche, we brought LiFi to enable students to connect to the network via light in a secure, fast and sustainable manner, while at ASL Napoli 2 Nord, the hospitals of Pozzuoli, Ischia and Procida are the first Italian health facilities where LiFi has enabled improved services for patients, visitors, doctors and hospital staff.

Would you like to get in touch with us and find out more about our LiFi solutions? Write to us at info@tobe-srl.it  and we will send you in-depth material.