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 and electromagnetic field exposure and providing location accuracy of less than 10 cm.

IoRL project provides solutions to the two main barriers to develop this broadband networking solution in buildings because it:

(i) Brings together a multi-disciplinary team of research institutions and industries in a collaborative project to develop and demonstrate this vision, who otherwise would not have assembled to achieve this goal;

(ii) Develops a proof of concept demonstrator, which will act as the basis for standardization of a global solution.

The starting point is the joint visible light communication (VLC) demonstrator at Tsinghua University & ISEP, the mmWave at Cobham Wireless and the software defined networking and network functions virtualisation (SDN/NFV) at NCSR Demokritos. The challenges are to

(i) 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 visible light communications (VLC) technologies and the flexibility of software defined networking and network functions virtualisation (SDN/NFV);

(ii) Industrially design a radio-light solution that can be integrated into the myriad of form factors of existing electric light systems and consumer products.