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Only with an open standard will LiFi’s market start to grow

Only with an open standard will LiFi’s market start to grow

Market news |
By eeNews Europe



LEDs can be modulated at a high frequency level that can’t be perceived by the human eye, supporting transfer data rates proven at 10 to 100x faster than Wi-Fi while remaining localized (only line of sight). The technology is also highly energy efficient as the visible light is already in use for lighting applications and seen as a safe alternative to radio waves, which are potentially harmful.

By nature, LiFi helps solve specific issues in numerous applications: for example, reducing a plane’s weight by using optical fiber instead of copper cables, or eliminating the risk of electromagnetic interference in hospitals. On a broader scale, LiFi can also provide additional bandwidth capacity to communication networks (when available).

In a new market report titled “LiFi – Technology, Industry, and Market Trends”, market research firm Yole Développement reviews the different components required for a complete LiFi ecosystem to strive and grow in a global market.

According to Yole’s analysts, while the components already exist, the key to LiFi’s growth is a communications standard that ensures all the different components, functions and software integrate into interoperable solutions.

To allow for bi-directional communication, LEDs, light sensors, power management electronics, modulation encoding and demodulation decoding systems and network management embedded software must be integrated in two systems. For instance, an LED luminaire/lamp paired with a terminal, i.e. a computer or a smartphone.

Although downstream data can be carried by visible light doubling as indoor lighting, it is hardly possible for upstream data to use white light, infrared (IR) light is preferred in order to prevent glare.

What’s more, at the light emission level, a monochromatic LED will enable a data rate 10x times higher compared to a white LED. Also, when modulated at high frequencies, white LEDs can suffer colorimetric distortion due to variations of the balance between emitted photons from the blue source and from the phosphor-converted material.

Regarding industry aspects, the focus will be on integrators and their willingness to bet on LiFi technology. Indeed, a clear commitment from a carrier industry (i.e. telecom, mobile devices, lighting) is mandatory for making concrete products from the technology. But according to Yole, despite the technological and industrial challenges, the main roadblocks for LiFi market development still remain at the standard level.


Like most communication systems, LiFi will require an open communication standard that facilitates the development of a sustainable ecosystem, note the analysts, as a key enabler for unleashing its promising growth potential.

To this end, a LiFi-dedicated standard known as IEEE 802.11.bb is expected to be released in 2021 and Yole only sees significant growth to begin in 2021, with a 53% CAGR from 2021 to 2023, possibly turning LiFi into a $1.1B opportunity by 2023.

The market research firm sees two major challenges that could prevent the technology from developing at a fast pace in the short/mid-term: one is standardization activities as mentioned earlier, the other is the development of products and services integrating LiFi, such as mobile devices from big OEMs like Apple, Samsung, and Huawei.

In this context, Yole Développement envisions two market development scenarios: A “Bear” scenario where LiFi is merely a complementary communication technology for niche applications; and a “Bull” scenario- where LiFi becomes the favored communication technology for strong use-cases.

Currently, the LiFi industry is still in its infancy, and Yole’s best expectation is for Industrial, hospitality & healthcare, retail, office, education, and residential to represent 80% of the expected volume in 2023. Technology integration and volume could then allow strong cost/price reduction, which will fuel market growth that could reach $2.7B in 2028.

This report offers an examination of the LiFi industry and market, including: supply/value chain, company profiles of key LiFi technology providers, product segmentation, and a market volume & revenue forecast (based on Yole’s “two- scenario”analysis).

Yole Développement – www.yole.fr

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