These are substantially similar to current installations for lighting and the market forces are driving demand independent of LC, in particular for Power over Ethernet solutions suitable for smart buildings. d) Consideration of operational costs (e.g., energy consumption). The added energy cost to support LC is minimal since the energy that is used for illumination may also be used to provide wireless communications. LEDs are being used for illumination and communications, removing constraints on the transmit power for the downlink. Using LC for uplink can be more power consuming. However, as discussed above in does “how uplink of LC-systems work”, when power consumption is an issue, the uplink could use infrared radiation or RF for uplink with similar level of power consumption as current 802.11 devices. e) Other areas, as appropriate. The light spectrum (100 nm 10000 nm) is already considred licensed-exempt by some – government regulators and falls outside of the remit of most other government regulators including outside of the regulatory authorities in Australia, Canada, China, India, Japan, Europe, South Korea and the USA. References: Nikola Serafimovski, Christophe Jurczak, 802.11-17/0803r1 Economic “IEEE Considerations for Light Communications” Global Market Insights, Market size forecast $75.5 billion by 2023”, available at “Li-Fi
These are substantially similar to current installations for lighting and the market forces are driving demand independent of LC, in particular for Power over Ethernet solutions suitable for smart buildings. d) Consideration of operational costs (e.g., energy consumption). The added energy cost to support LC is minimal since the energy that is used for illumination may also be used to provide wireless communications. LEDs are being used for illumination and communications, removing constraints on the transmit power for the downlink. Using LC for uplink can be more power consuming. However, as discussed above in “how does uplink of LC-systems work”, when power consumption is an issue, the uplink could use infrared radiation or RF for uplink with similar level of power consumption as current 802.11 devices. e) Other areas, as appropriate. The light spectrum (100 nm – 10000 nm) is already considred licensed-exempt by some government regulators and falls outside of the remit of most other government regulators including outside of the regulatory authorities in Australia, Canada, China, India, Japan, Europe, South Korea and the USA. References: Nikola Serafimovski, Christophe Jurczak, “IEEE 802.11-17/0803r1 Economic Considerations for Light Communications” Global Market Insights, “Li-Fi Market size forecast $75.5 billion by 2023”, available at
11-17-1603-00-00lc-a-csd-proposal-for-light-communications.docx