Li-Fi is a newer term in wireless communication. Even if it has been around for 7 years, most people still do not know about it. So, I decided to write about Li-Fi in detail. In this article, I will try to tell you everything you should know about this upcoming high-speed wireless communication technology.
What is Li-Fi?
LiFi or light fidelity is a wireless communication technology that transmits data between devices using light. In the present state, it uses light-emitting diodes (LEDs) for data transmission and it uses the same LED light bulbs that can be found in most homes and offices.
LiFi uses the same 802.11 protocols, but it uses ultraviolet, infrared, and visible light communication in place of radio frequency waves.
How Li-Fi Works?
As I said, it uses light to transmit data. So, it uses LED bulbs to receive and transmit the data. LED is a semiconductor device and got switching properties. This property is used to transmit data.
The LED lamp is powered by an LED driver that gets information from the Internet server. It encodes the data and based on this data, the lamp will flicker at a very high speed. It cannot be noticed by human eyes, but Photo Detector on the other end will be able to read all the flickering. It will then decode the data after Amplification and Processing. Then it will transmit the data.
As light travels faster ten thousand times faster than Radio waves, it will offer much faster communication. To make it clear, you should know that frequency of Radio waves is just 300 Giga hertz but light can go up to 790 Terahertz.
Researchers at Oxford University managed to achieve a speed of 224Gbps using the Li-Fi network. This is much faster than the existing WiFi network’s speed.
For connecting to the LiFi network, your device should also get a LiFi adapter for receiving Li-Fi-enabled light signals. There are companies like Pure LiFi are also offering Li-Fi dongles that can be plugged into USB and read data from any Li-Fi-enabled light. Oledcomm also launched its product named MyLiFi which brings the LiFi to your computer via a USB port. They showcased their device at CES 2018.
Advantages
Unlike radio frequency waves, lights cannot penetrate through walls and doors. So, it requires a direct line of sight to transmit data. It makes it secure as people present in room can only connect to the network and no signal will go outside until Windows and doors are covered.
Another big advantage is that it does not interfere with sensitive electronics. So, it is safe to use in hospitals and aircraft-like sensitive environments.
Drawbacks
You need to place capable LED bulbs throughout the home and these must be on at all times to provide connectivity. The connection range will also be smaller and it will not be ideal for home networks.
Final Words
Even if we are close to LiFi technology, it will still take years to completely replace the existing WiFi network. The Indian government has also started testing LiFi for making the Internet accessible to difficult territories where reaching Fiber is not possible. Few internet providers in Dubai have already tested the tech to offer consumers high-speed video streaming and Internet. So, we are already on a fast track. I am expecting this tech to reach consumers by 2020.
If you have anything to say or ask, you can always leave it in the comment.
