The ELIoT project (Enhance Lighting for the Internet of Things) intends to use the Li-Fi technology (light fidelity) to transmit data in the Internet of Things. Li-Fi facilitates high data transfer rates by switching special LEDs on and off over short distances. The signals are captured by photodiodes that convert the light signals back into electrical impulses. Transmission speeds of up to 224 gigabits per second have already been reached under laboratory conditions in this way. The technology’s drawback is that direct data transmission is only possible within eyeshot, and the signals cannot pass through walls or other obstacles.

ELIoT was launched in 2019 as part of Horizon 2020, a major EU research and innovation program, and received €6 million in start-up funding from the public-private partnership Photonics21 . The project aims to develop mass-market solutions for the Internet of Things based on Li-Fi. Partners include Signify (formerly Philips Lighting), Nokia, MaxLinear, Deutsche Telekom, KPN, Weidmüller, LightBee, Oxford University, Eindhoven University of Technology, and Fraunhofer institutes HHI and Fokus.