Internet of Radio-Light: 5G Broadband in Buildings

Abstract

Wireless networks in buildings suffer from congestion, interference, security and safety concerns, restricted propagation and poor in-door location accuracy. The Internet of Radio-Light (IoRL) project develops a safer, more secure, customizable and intelligent building network that reliably delivers increased throughput (greater than 10Gbps) from access points pervasively located within buildings, whilst minimizing interference, power consumption and harmful EM exposure and providing location accuracy of less than 10 cm. It thereby shows how to solve the problem of broadband wireless access in buildings and promotes the establishment of a global standard in ITU and 5GPPP. Building landlords will be incentivized to find funding to realize this solution for their properties to increase their value resulting in a stimulated market for broadband networking products in buildings, benefiting society and stimulating the world Gross Domestic Product. IoRL project provides solutions to develop this broadband networking solution in buildings using the existing joint VLC demonstrator at Tsinghua University & ISEP, the mmWave at Cobham Wireless and the NFV/SDN at NCSR-Democratos. The challenges are to develop broadband communication solutions for buildings by integrating these technologies to exploit the pervasiveness and accessibility of the existing electric light access points, the broadband capacities of mmWave and VLC technologies and the flexibility of SDN/NFV and to industrially design a radio-light solution that can be integrated into the myriad of form factors of existing electric light systems and consumer products.