IIIT-Delhi to start a new Centre of Excellence (CoE) on Light Fidelity (LiFi) supported by India-EU ICT Standardisation Cooperation Project

New Delhi: IIIT-Delhi is set to start a new Centre of Excellence (CoE) on Light Fidelity (LiFi). TSDSI and ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) are anchoring the activities under this project from India and EU respectively. As a part of this project, the CoE will not only design relevant courses on LiFi, but will also facilitate capacity building by supporting research collaborations and exchange of experts between India and EU.

The vision of the proposed CoE includes developing technology solutions and products to enhance the last mile connectivity using Visible Light Communication (VLC), connect entrepreneurs in India with academic researchers who are pioneers of VLC as well as to standardization bodies, manpower training (academic faculty as well as students and engineers), and development of training and classroom courses on VLC. The CoE will also work on the standardization of these technologies, in the context of 5G and beyond, through TSDSI and lead the way for international standardization of 5G VLC based solutions through 3GPP.

The CoE will be driven by Prof Anand Srivastava, Dr Vivek Bohara and Dr. Gourab Ghatak who lead a strong research group on optical wireless communications where members are involved in developing hardware and algorithms for indoor LiFi systems, hybrid RF-VLC systems, and VLC systems for V2V applications.

VLC/LiFi technology is particularly interesting in the Indian context, as the Govt of India has launched a scheme for LED bulb distribution under the domestic efficient lighting program (DELP), in the purview of which India has distributed 15 Million LEDs so far. Thus, an efficient development and roll-out of this technology will augment the internet-access capabilities and complement the LED boom in India.