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Communication for the Internet of things (IoT) currently is predominantly narrowband and cannot always guarantee low latency and high reliability. Future IoT applications such as flexible manufacturing, augmented reality and self-driving vehicles rely on sophisticated real-time processing in the cloud to which mobile IoT devices are connected. High-capacity links that meet the requirements of the upcoming 6G systems cannot easily be provided by the current radio-based communication infrastructure. Light communication, which is also denoted as LiFi, offers huge amounts of spectrum, extra security and low-latency transmission free of interference even in dense reuse settings. We present the current state-of-the-art of LiFi systems and introduce new features needed for future IoT applications. We discuss results from a distributed multiple-input multiple-output topology with a fronthaul using plastic optical fibre. We evaluate seamless mobility between the light access points and also handovers to 5G, besides low-power transmission and integrated positioning. Future LiFi development, implementation and efforts towards standardization are addressed in the EU ELIoT project which is presented here.

Precise position information is considered as the main enabler for the implementation of smart manufacturing systems in Industry 4.0. In this article, a time-of-flight based indoor positioning system for LiFi is presented based on the ITU - T recommendation G.9991. Our objective is to realize positioning by reusing already existing functions of the LiFi communication protocol which has been adopted by several vendors. Our positioning algorithm is based on a coarse timing measurement using the frame synchronization preamble, similar to the ranging, and a fine timing measurement using the channel estimation preamble. This approach works in various environments and it requires neither knowledge about the beam characteristics of transmitters and receivers nor the use of fingerprinting. The new algorithm is validated through both, simulations and experiments. Results in an 1 m × 1 m × 2 m area indicate that G.9991-based positioning can reach an average distance error of a few centimeters in three dimension. Considering the common use of lighting in indoor environments and the availability of a mature optical wireless communication system using G.9991, the proposed LiFi positioning is a promising new feature that can be added to the existing protocols and enhance the capabilities of smart lighting systems further for the benefit of Industry 4.0.