Oledcomm LiFiMAX2G, The Latest Addition To The LiFiMAX Family, at CES 2023

LIFIMAX2G®

In one of our previous articles, we stated that Oledcomm will unveil its latest LiFi system, LIFIMAX2G®, at CES 2023.

According to Oledcomm, the LiFIMAX2G® is best suited for subways, trains and any vehicle applications that need to download huge amounts of data in terabytes (images and videos) in less than 20 seconds as well as for industrial Industry 4.0 applications in augmented reality, IoT or M2M. As fast as Gigabit Ethernet, more secure than WiFi, and as small as a smoke detector, LiFiMAX2G® takes Vehicle-to-Infrastructure communications and connectivity for Industry 4.0 to a new level.

This new generation of LiFi transceivers doubles the speed achieved by the previous generation, now reaching nearly 2 Gigabits per second upstream and 2 Gigabits per second downstream at a distance of 1-5m.

The infrared VCSEL laser diodes in the system come from ams Osram. The LiFiMAX2G uses two VCSELs per transceiver, which is how Oledcomm doubled the speed compared to the single VCSEL of the current generation, called the LiFiMAX1G. VCSEL stands for Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser. VCSEL is a semiconductor whose laser is emitted perpendicular to the top surface. It differs from an edge-fired laser, which emits the laser from the edge.

VCSEL is a breakthrough light-emitting device in optical communications, as well as a new form of optoelectronic technology with enormous development prospects.

According to an article from LEDs Magazine, Oledcomm has priced the new LiFiMAX2G at €6000 per link, the company told LEDs Magazine (the LiFiMAX1G is priced at €3000). A link consists of two laser-based transceivers — one at either end of the transmission at up to 5m apart.

A spokesperson told LEDs that a railway company is trialling the LiFiMAX2G in Europe. The same customer has been using the 1-Gbps LiFiMAX1G, as has a Formula 3 race car team, she said.

“The dizzying growth in the amount of data collected in mobility situations and the increase in multimedia flows require a reliable and uninterrupted communication standard for all, especially in transport and factory 4.0,” Oledcomm co-CEO Benjamin Azoulay noted during last week’s product introduction.

Demo at CES 2023

The LiFIMAX2G® prototype demonstration was mainly a point-to-point demonstration. Oledcomm stated that they are now focusing mainly on defence and security and some industrial and transportation with this application.

During the demo, Naomi Azoulay said: “So, our photonic antenna, the beam is more around 70 to 80 degrees. And for the point-to-point, this one is 50 to 60 degrees, if you want to keep the speed and the distance, it can go up to five metres. But the farther you go, the less speed you get, obviously.”

“So, for the moment, this prototype is only doing a demonstration that the speed can be up to two gigabits. And the idea, with the main project we recently signed, is for a train to be equipped with one of those, and the station to be equipped with another one to exchange data instead of cable. So, basically, it's replacing cable at high speed. So, it's very interesting in an environment where radio frequencies are not either allowed or desired. And there is no cable, so it's really easier to set up.”

It was stated that the LiFiMAX2G product will be available for sale around September 2023.

Credit to Oledcomm - LiFiMAX2G prototype

Credit to Oledcomm - LiFiMAX2G prototype

During CES 2023, TOM.travel interviewed Benjamin Azoulay, President and CEO of Oledcomm, to find out what Li-Fi is, a wireless communication technology that works by light, to know its evolutions and to find out more about its upcoming installation in the Paris metro. The video is in French but we translated some of the conversations in English.

Benjamin Azoulay: “It's a bit like fibre optics in free space. So, we use LEDs, we make them flash at a very high speed 30 million times per second, 30 MHz. We manage to communicate and connect to the internet. The big advantage is first and foremost cybersecurity. The light not being attackable, not being outside the room, not being visible outside the room, is it not blurred? There are a lot of defence applications in environments where radio frequencies are prohibited, but there are also other applications such as in schools. You know that in France, Belgian law prohibits the exposure of radio frequency waves to the waves. So, I have children under three and that's why we also have apps for schools. So, that's a big defence for space, industry, but also schools and we're keen on it in tourism, it was geolocation applications, that is to say, that the light that is above a painting, for example, can be used to trigger content on your smartphone or tablet that will allow the museum to send geo-contextualized information. It is a technology that we called at the time the GeoLIFI, which worked very well, which had applications in museums but also in supermarkets and which continues to progress.”

“We have partners working on the subject. The technology has nevertheless evolved towards bi-directional at a very high speed. Today, we have reached two gigabits per second. We are going to equip a Greater Paris metro line. Soon, we will make announcements in the coming months. It is a technique. That's the natural evolution of technology and its use cases. So, in a metro, it will be rather the downloading of data from the metro to the infrastructure. That is to say that the metro will stop or take in 20 seconds on hacked and it is necessary to download all the information that the metro will store. For example, the videos that will have been filmed inside. You know that for legal reasons, you have to keep it for at least seven days and that's it. The technology allows this to be downloaded at a very high speed and that is what is going to be used more than a lot of people. Imagine consumer applications. We are more today on the very B2B application but which will gradually evolve towards the general public when smartphones will start to be equipped. There, the technology will reach the general public, but it will not be for two or three years. Four years.”

Oledcomm

Oledcomm designs and develops LiFi network interface devices that enable high-speed wireless data communication. It also serves LiFi equipment in the telecom, datacom, personal electronics, and industrial markets. The company’s product portfolio includes hubs, routers, switches, adapters, drivers, power supplies, and more.

Oledcomm was founded in 2012 and is based in Paris, France. Oledcomm's adventure began in 2005 in the research laboratories of the University of Versailles-Saint-Quentin with the first work on communication by visible light.

Following years of research & development and a passion for innovation, Oledcomm became the pioneer of LiFi (Light Fidelity) solutions and innovation on a global scale.

Based in the Paris region, Oledcomm employs around 20 people and designs complete solutions for LiFi operation, including microcontrollers, LiFi photoreceivers and software platforms.

Today, after more than 33 patents, 15 years of R&D, over 500 trusted clients and several awards, Oledcomm is pursuing a strong mission: to transform the 14 billion points of light in the world into a powerful communication network.

The company is ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015 certified. Oledcomm's LiFi offering solves connectivity problems by replacing cables in environments where radio waves are undesirable. Targeted sectors include space, defence, industrial and education. Since 2020, LiFiMAX® has been installed and tested in more than 800 projects worldwide and has been validated by ORANGE for Cybersecurity.

At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in 2021, Oledcomm announced an integrated circuit (ASIC) that enables native LiFi integration in tablets, PCs or smartphones. Oledcomm is a laureate of the European Deeptech EIC Accelerator program, which provides for the European Commission to invest in Oledcomm through the EIC Fund.

Article source: Oledcomm