Solid-state light emitter lighting apparatus and method of operating the same

A solid-state lighting unit capable of communicating with one or more adjacent lighting units, comprising:

• a housing;
• a front cover arranged on a front side of the housing;
• a plurality of light sources arranged on a circuit board;
• a control panel arranged on a back side of the housing;
• a driving module electrically connected to the plurality of light sources;
• one or more inter-unit communication modules, each located on a corresponding side of the solid-state lighting unit and configured to communicate with an inter-unit communication module of a corresponding adjacent lighting unit connected to the solid-state lighting unit on the corresponding side;
• wherein each inter-unit communication module comprises:
• a presence detector for detecting presence of the corresponding adjacent lighting unit;
• a presence indicator for indicating the presence of the corresponding adjacent lighting unit;
• a transceiver for communicating with a corresponding optical transceiver in the corresponding adjacent lighting unit;
• a microprocessor electrically connected to the driving module and one or more inter-unit communication modules and configured to control each of the inter-unit communication modules such that:
• the inter-unit communication module is activated when the corresponding presence detector detects the presence of the corresponding adjacent lighting unit;
• and the inter-unit communication module is deactivated when the corresponding presence detector does not detect the presence of the corresponding adjacent lighting unit;
• and
• a control communication module electrically connected to the microprocessor and the control panel and configured to:
• receive a control signal from the control panel;
• decode the control signal into a control command;
• and transmit the control command to the microprocessor;
• and
• wherein, the microprocessor is further configured to:
• receive the control command from the control communication module;
• and transmit the control command to one or more activated optical transceivers to forward the control command to one or more adjacent lighting units.