Lighting based authentication of a mobile electronic device

A method of verifying proximity of a mobile electronics device to an LED based illumination device, comprising:

• receiving a request from a mobile electronics device;
• emitting an amount of modulated illumination light from the LED based illumination device, the modulated illumination light indicating a first optical code;
• receiving an indication of a second optical code from the mobile electronics device, wherein the second optical code is determined by the mobile electronics device from an amount of the modulated illumination light detected by the mobile electronics device;
• and
• determining whether the first optical code matches the second optical code.

A method of authenticating a mobile electronics device on a lighting communications network, comprising:

• requesting a communications link on the lighting communications network;
• detecting an amount of modulated illumination light emitted from an LED based illumination device, the modulated illumination light indicating an optical code;
• determining the optical code from the detected amount of modulated illumination light;
• communicating an indication of the determined optical code to the LED based illumination device;
• and
• receiving the communications link on the lighting communications network.