The Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIIT-Delhi) will start a new Centre of Excellence (CoE) on Light Fidelity. The project will jointly be monitored by India's TSDSI and EU's European Telecommunications Standards Institute. As part of the Light Fidelity (LiFi) project, the centre will design relevant courses on LiFi and facilitate capacity building by research collaborations.
The CoE will be driven by Professor Anand Srivastava, Dr Vivek Bohara and Dr Gourab Ghatak
The vision of the proposed CoE, as per an IIIT Delhi statement, includes developing technology solutions and products to enhance the last mile connectivity using Visible Light Communication (VLC), connect entrepreneurs in India with academic researchers and standardization bodies, manpower training and development of training and classroom courses on VLC.
The CoE will also work on the standardization of the 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 statement added.
LiFi technology is particularly interesting in the Indian context, as the Indian Government 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, the IIIT statement added.