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First Ceiling Light Internet Systems Installed
An anonymous reader writes "We last heard about LVX's LED ceiling light optical communication system in December, and now news has broken that the company recently implemented the technology at several city offices in St. Cloud, Minnesota. The LVX/ceiling light system is capable of transmitting data at about three megabits per second, which is about as fast as a residential DSL line. It works by placing light-emitting diodes (LEDs) in a standard-sized light fixture. This then transmits coded binary messages to the special modems attached to computers, which also respond via light waves."
"Sir, are there three green lights on the modem?"
"Hang on, let me climb my ladder."
(crashing noise is heard in background)
User: My network won't work.... Tech: Move your ficus tree so it's not blocking the light again...
An I.T. motto in the hands of an idiot is a dangerous thing...
Transmitting the data through the air, you mean like WiFi and cell phones do all the time? Too bad we don't have a way to scramble the data in a way that makes its contents inaccessible unless someone has the "key"...
Just one more reason not to use Windows, I suppose.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Real Enterprises know how to deal with the security issue of Wi-Fi.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
REAL enterprises use subspace transmissions.
So "Real enterprises" never use WiFi?
Real enterprises treat it as a second class network, but all desktops are generally still on a wired network.
They also generally have you use an encrypted VPN even if you're on an internal WiFi.
The irony is that all but the most criminally negligent IT administrators would apply military-strength cryptography to their WiFi links, but allow data to traverse the wired connections in the clear, which means that the wireless link is substantially more secure!
One of the biggest vulnerabilities in any large office building is the wired network. It's trivial for an attacker dressed in a suit to simply walk in, sit down at an empty desk, plug in, and start doing packet captures. Switched networks provide minimal protection, thanks to DNS cache and ARP cache poisoning attacks and the like.
You'd be amazed at how ignorant typical IT administrators are of the risk. I've heard ridiculous things like:
"But you need to fill out a form to get network access!"
- Only if I follow the rules. Nothing stops me from physically connecting.
"You need an AD account to connect to the network!"
- They're thinking of network shares, but the exploitable vulnerabilities are at the IP network layer.
"Your computer is not a member of the domain, it can't connect!"
- That's largely irrelevant, once you have a user account, practically everything is accessible even from a machine that's in an untrusted workgroup.
These aren't from rare isolated incidents either, I hear one of those three almost every time I sit down at a new customer as a consultant. System administrators live in a fantasy land of imagined security.
"It is better than traditional wireless communication since systems such as WI-FI, 3G Networks and Bluetooth all require magnetic radio waves."
Oh, so that's the difference between light and other parts of the EM spectrum. Here I always thought it was just wave length...
I'm glad that science reporter was there to help educate the public. >:/
Im not here now... Im out KILLING pepperoni
i agree, it's little different from wifi, but i don't understand why it's better than wifi? ... It doesn't work through drywall.
I don't claim to understand this system completely, but that sounds like a feature to me. Crowded apartment building? This gives an alternative to a saturated wifi network.
Sewage Treatment Facilities - "Our duty is clear."