Recent advances in free space optical (FSO) technologies promise a new way to provide energy efficient, high speed, and secure wireless communications. Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (VCSELs) are now sufficiently mature that it is possible to transmit data at high bit rates reliably using simple energy efficient modulation schemes. Also, FSO and RF devices can operate in the same locations without interference. Importantly, FSO transmissions can be made to directly focus to a particular receiver. Consequently, information leak to the surrounding by FSO transmissions can be tightly controlled by adjusting the focus area which is not easily done with typical RF transmissions. FSO devices are also resilient to jamming attack since the attacker has to be in vicinity of the legitimate user and has sufficient power to direct its light to disrupt the receivers signal. This proposal aims to build the first high speed (Gbps), scalable, secure, wireless local area network (WLAN) for undersea platform using an innovative concept called dynamic FSO femtocell (DFF) architecture. DFF technologies provide the coverage area through a network of collaborative femtocells, each can be can be dynamically enlarged, reduced, and moved in such a way to optimize for throughput, energy, security, and mobility.
Benefit: Potential Commercialization Application: We identify three possible markets for the DFF technologies: Wi-Fi Market: As the new Wi-Fi standards are rapidly phased in, Wi-Fi bandwidth is likely to increase two to three times, and alternative Wi-Fi standards like the 802.11ad. The 802.11ad standard potentially can transmit data up to 7 Gbps (theoretically) at 60 GHz frequency at short distance, but the 7 Gbps will have to be divided among all users. DFF will provides complimentary approach if not replacement of Wi-Fi due to its very high-speed per user (> 1 Gbps). Smart Home Market: Another approach to productize DFF technologies is to partner with companies in the smart home market. The smart home market is projected to growth exponentially to 19 billion by 2019. DFF transmitters can be integrated directly into the smart sensors of home devices such as smart lamps to provide high-speed Internet. Specialty Market: Another approach is to provide high end products such as fast and secure communication infrastructure for governmental agencies such as FBI and CIA. With this approach, we will deploy and customize the DFF system based on the clients requirements. This market will have fewer competitions. In addition, governmental agencies and big businesses will be more likely to spend money to adopt new technologies than average consumers in the mass market.
Keywords: Li-Fi, Li-Fi, wireless communication, WLAN, VCSELs, Optical transceivers, FSO communication
