Li-Fi To Soon Replace Wi-Fi?

Fast wireless transmission of data, through light! Get ready for super fast networks!

The technology of data transfer does not stand still for long, and it seems to be on the move again.
Only this time, it may just be moving with the speed of light.

This shall make for interesting reading, and I promise to try and speak in English.

Unlike Wi-Fi, which uses radio waves for the transmission of signals, this new piece of technology uses light in the visual light spectrum to serve the same purpose. It’s inherently higher bandwidth allows for much faster transfer of data.

Called ‘Visual Light Communication’ technology, or ‘Li-Fi’ (Light Fidelity), this technology employs micro LED’s to transmit data wirelessly, by varying their intensities millions of times a second. Thus it acts as an extremely fast on/off switch, and allows for transmission of large chunks of binary data (ones and zeros) to be transmitted at tremendously high speeds.

Developed as a joint venture between the universities of Edinburgh, St Andrews, Strathclyde, Oxford, and Cambridge, and funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Li-Fi is now catching the interest of scientists across the globe — even researchers from China who recently came forward to say that they can now wirelessly transmit data using light at speeds up to 10GB/sec!

And this speed is just the beginning.

Li-Fi makes use of LED’s or Light Emitting Diodes specifically developed for the purpose in the University of Edinburgh.
The advantage of diodes is that they allow for a much faster variation in intensity, which is basically what allows for the technology to work in the first place. The light changes intensities so fast that to a human eye, it would look like a continuous stream of light.

Here’s a quick drawing to explain the concept of Li-Fi in brief:

Comparisons to Wi-Fi are inevitable, of course.

Li-Fi is quite obviously much faster than its older companion, courtesy the fact that it relies on light to transmit data rather than radio waves.

While the fastest Wi-Fi speed is pegged in mega bit per second, Li-Fi boasts a staggering (theoretical) speed of up to 10 giga bits per second. That’s about 100 times more data travelling per second than Wi-Fi!

One disadvantage of course, is that light cannot penetrate solid objects the way radio waves can, thus making it essential that the transmitter and receiver be within line of sight of each other.

And while some may look upon this as a problem, we think it’s a good thing. It makes the data transmission more secure, and if the only additional cost be that of using multiple nodes instead of one main router, then that’s not such a bad thing, for the returns that Li-Fi promises.

Another advantage that Li-Fi has over Wi-Fi, is that it can be used in places such as hospitals and aircrafts, places that cannot use Wi-Fi because of the effect that the radio waves would have on that environment.

Other benefits that Li-Fi has over it’s competition include almost minimal amount of power required to use Li-Fi. The LED’s are relatively easy to power, and considering the relatively large amount of energy required to use Wi-Fi, this advantage may be one that sees more importance as the technology develops.

Despite the obvious advantages however, Li-Fi is not without problems.

The most glaring one, (no pun intended) is probably the effect that other light sources would have on the receiver. Interference due to both natural and artificial sources is a cause for concern as they may cause saturation in the receiver and slow down the transmission to a large extent.

Also, while it may be reasonable to say that the connection is more secure due to the fact that Li-Fi requires the transmitter and receiver to be within sight, the inability to freely move around while using Li-Fi is one that needs to be tackled.

Though this technology can still be considered to be in an early stage of development, it is seeing no shortage of promotion. Industrial and technological companies banded together in 2011 to form the Li-Fi Consortium, which aims to support any corporations looking to get a head start when it comes to using Visual Light Communication.

PureLi-Fi’s website (http://purelifi.co.uk), previously known as PureVLC, is another platform for discussion of this technology, which gets you updates on its most recent developments.

Some of the problems I’ve stated above, seem like rather big ones, but that is quite normal for any developing piece of tech. Case in point, PureLi-Fi claims to have already found a viable solution to work around the line-of-sight problem, thus allowing for a Wi-Fi-like move-around experience.

Also, by use of light filters, researchers are developing a means to filter out the extraneous light, solving the first problem as well.

The only problem that may trouble them in the future, it seems, is the inability to work in the dark.

Infrared, anyone?

All in all, the future of Li-Fi seems promising. Integration of the LED’s with your normal lighting methods will allow for amazingly fast internet speeds at the flick of a switch. Fix the LED’s to every light source in your office or house, and the line-of-sight problem may not be such a problem anymore.

Some claim that the usage of the Visual Light Spectrum for data transfer may just be the principle to power 5G (the next gen telecommunication technology needed for mobile communication).

The commercialization of this technology will be interesting, especially since they still need to find a way to make the product affordable.

The technology has already been employed with select commercial partners, and is also innovating for the technology’s use under water.

Will Li-Fi be the way of the future? Hope so, as it will take the strain away from the already loaded Wi-Fi (do read our article: Wi-Fi Space To Run Out By 2020 to learn more).

Originally published at Chip-Monks.