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LET THERE BE VISIBLE LIGHT COMMUNICATION
W I R E L E S S E N G I N E E R I N G
WiFi has revolutionized how and where we access the internet and has become increasingly ubiquitous in the last two decades. But within the next 10 years, assistant professor Tao Shu expects it to become obsolete, replaced by visible light communication, or VLC. Using light waves to transmit information, VLC capitalizes on a license-free spectrum and abundant bandwidth with transmission rates that dwarf WiFi’s capabilities. However, there are major security concerns to overcome, and that’s where Shu comes in. Since the light is visible, it is open to eavesdropping. A bad actor could also block the light source, similar to a denial of service attack, and then spoof a false signal. With the support of an Early-concept Grant for Exploratory Research from the National Science Foundation, Shu is investigating the use of a Multiple Input-Multiple Output architecture to overcome these vulnerabilities. “When multiple LED lights are illuminated, you cannot tell which signal comes from a particular LED. The signals are mixed together,” Shu said. “However, we are using orthogonal coding to encode the light emitted by the LEDs. An algorithm on the receiver side can then decode or detect the special code from the transmitter.” Shu’s lab has also developed a framework to demonstrate other potential security issues, such as information being exposed when the light reflects off objects. “Security is a huge issue for VLC and our efforts are making great contributions to improve the security of this technology,” he said.
TAO SHU Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Software Engineering 334-844-5170 tshu@auburn.edu Website: aub.ie/TShu 2018-19 Dean’s Report
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