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While it is well-known that IEEE 802.11 develops standards
and amendments for RF-based Wi-Fi technologies, you may not realize that there
is some past history of using non-RF technologies for Wi-Fi. Back when IEEE
802.11 developed its first standards, there had been an infrared-based
solution.
The early proponents who proposed the formation of this new
study group believed that, by choosing the IEEE 802.11 Working Group as a
venue for developing a light communications amendment, the industry would take
advantage of the availability of established Wi-Fi chipsets and the associated
protocols and firmware, and thereby would benefit from a shorter time-to-market
for light communications products.
In reality, amendments that extend the spectrum out of 2.4
GHz and 5 GHz frequency bands is neither new nor out of scope for the IEEE
802.11 Working Group. For example, such an extension has been done for
60 GHz frequency band when IEEE 802.11 Working Group started developing IEEE
802.11ad-2012 amendment and sub 1 GHz frequency band when it started
developing IEEE 802.11ah-2016 amendment.
The light spectrum has been underutilized for
communication. The visible light spectrum alone stretches from approximately
430 THz to 770 THz, which means that there is potentially more than 1000
times the bandwidth of the entire RF spectrum of approximately 300 GHz.
Note that both the visible light spectrum and the infrared spectrum are
unlicensed.
IEEE 802 also has related task groups for light
communications. From the IEEE 802.15 Working Group, IEEE 802.15.7 has been
developing a multi-gigabit optical wireless communication amendment; and
IEEE 802.15.13 has been developing high speed light communications amendment.
While IEEE 802.15.7 focuses mainly on low data rate
one-way communication (e.g., it is similar to a QR code where you scan a LED
light to get a short message), IEEE 802.15.13 targets high speed light
communications in industrial wireless market segment.
Work done by the new study group in IEEE 802.11 is
expected to cover different use cases. These include, but not limited to,
consumer electronics and enterprise-based applications, because of their high
compatibility with existing Wi-Fi systems.
Consider a scenario where locations RF is either not
allowed or preferred—such as an enterprise that requires robustness
against eavesdropping: A home user who has installed a baby monitor at home
and wants to view it through a more private network. Here, light
communication can be considered as a complementary solution to an RF-based
solution.
[1] N. Serafimovski, et al., “Light Communications
(LC) for 802.11: Use Cases and Functional Requirements: Guidelines for
PAR and CSD Development.” IEEE 802.11 document 11-17/0023r9, July 2017.
Online: https://mentor.ieee.org/802.11/dcn/17/11-17-0023-09-00lc-lc-tig-draft-report-outline.docx. | 
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