Potential use of fiber-optic and Li-Fi systems in private 5G/6G networks dedicated to the industrial IoT

Abstract

The paper presents the need to introduce new network solutions that will be able to significantly increase the efficiency of product manufacturing and delivery in the near future. Under Industry 4.0, so-called private networks based on 5G and IoT technologies will be introduced in an increasing number of industrial plants around the world. The combination of private and public network resources will significantly increase the potential of IoT solutions, as this will enable the combination of production, analytical and logistics processes. Fast decision-making systems, efficient transmission of massive data can be realized only thanks to fast and capacious fiber-optic networks. The paper suggests that fiber networks, also based on multi-core fibers, be introduced where copper cabling is still used for communication. It was also indicated that in order to increase the security and capacity of links in the radio domain, part of the link should be replaced by an optical wireless interface working in the future Li-Fi standard or its evolutionary version based on invisible light communication (inVLC) mode.