Wiring harness reduction in automotive using Li-Fi technology

The wiring harnesses in a vehicle used to connect various electrical and electronics components for power supply and communications are bulky and expensive. Wiring Harnesses are a combination of control and communication wires. Reducing them can reduce the weight and hence the fuel consumption of vehicles. Li-Fi technology, which mainly uses LEDs as the transmitters, provides one possibility to reduce wiring harness. The emerging Li-Fi technology can offer very high data rate and ultra-wide bandwidth, while bringing no electromagnetic interferences (EMIs). In addition, it is unlicensed. This combination of features makes it highly suitable for high-speed communications within electromagnetic sensitive areas, such as vehicles, hospitals and flights. This work proposes a wiring harness reduction solution in automotive by using Li-Fi technology. In addition, a dedicated Li-Fi receiver is introduced in this work. This receiver features low cost and small size suitable to replace the wiring harness. The measurement results shows that the Li-Fi technology has the potential to be used for on-board control and communications, thereby reducing the use of wiring harness in many parts of vehicles. Therefore, this work opens the possibility of using Li-Fi technology for on-board controls and communications by reducing possible wiring harness within the vehicle.