Reportedly,networking researchers come from the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich Hertz Institute HHI in Berlin, Germany, have used LED lighting to distribute Full HD movies to notebooks, smartphones and other devices, in a system that could join WiFi and PowerLine networks in shuttling high-speed data around the home and office.

The optical WLAN co-opts white LEDs used for regular illumination to transmit data at up to 100 Mbit/s, by flickering it more rapidly than the human eye can see.

The lighting units – which rely on normal LEDs and a simple modulator to control the flickering – each have a roughly 90 square foot range, while any gadget wanting to receive the signal is outfitted with a simple photo diode.
On the flip side, however, the researchers admit that the signal can be easily blocked if the photo diode is covered or shaded. They suggest it would work best as a companion to, rather than a replacement for, existing WiFi, 3G or other methods.

According to the researchers, boosting transmission speed is the next step, with researchers working on increasing the data rate eightfold. “Using red-blue-green-white light LEDs, we were able to transmit 800 Mbit/s in the lab.”