{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,10]],"date-time":"2025-10-10T01:45:16Z","timestamp":1760060716176,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":38,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,15]],"date-time":"2025-09-15T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1757894400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100004425","name":"Asian Development Bank","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["R3\/SJ\/11"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["R3\/SJ\/11"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100004425","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Network"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The hybridization of Near-Field Communication (NFC) with Visible Light Communication (VLC) presents a promising framework for robust, secure, and efficient wireless transmission. By combining proximity-based authentication of NFC with high-speed and interference-resistant data transfer of VLC, this approach mitigates the inherent limitations of each technology, such as the restricted range of NFC and authentication challenges of VLC. The resulting hybrid system leverages NFC for secure handshaking and VLC for high-throughput communication, enabling scalable, real-time applications across diverse domains. This study examines integration strategies, technical enablers, and potential use cases, including smart street poles for secure citizen engagement, patient authentication and record access systems in healthcare, personalized retail advertising, and automated attendance tracking in education. Additionally, this paper addresses key challenges in hybridization and explores future research directions, such as the integration of Artificial Intelligence and 6G networks.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/network5030037","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,15]],"date-time":"2025-09-15T11:51:43Z","timestamp":1757937103000},"page":"37","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Hybrid NFC-VLC Systems: Integration Strategies, Applications, and Future Directions"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"5","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0006-5319-5325","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Vindula L.","family":"Jayaweera","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Nugegoda 10250, Sri Lanka"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0007-2517-5279","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Chamodi","family":"Peiris","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Nugegoda 10250, Sri Lanka"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6402-8737","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Dhanushika","family":"Darshani","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Nugegoda 10250, Sri Lanka"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0747-923X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sampath","family":"Edirisinghe","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Nishan","family":"Dharmaweera","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Nugegoda 10250, Sri Lanka"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Uditha","family":"Wijewardhana","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Nugegoda 10250, Sri Lanka"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,15]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"96","DOI":"10.5220\/0005377500960104","article-title":"Modeling NFC-triggered user interactions with simple services in a smart environment","volume":"Volume 2","author":"Volpentesta","year":"2015","journal-title":"International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"26","DOI":"10.1016\/j.revip.2017.10.001","article-title":"LiFi is a paradigm-shifting 5G technology","volume":"3","author":"Haas","year":"2018","journal-title":"Rev. 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