This article was posted by CrystalWind.ca.
Li-Fi: 100 times faster than Wi-Fi
Written by AndEl
Expect to hear a whole lot more about Li-Fi - a wireless technology that transmits high-speed data using visible light communication (VLC) - in the coming months. With scientists achieving speeds of 224 gigabits per second in the lab using Li-Fi earlier this year, the potential for this technology to change everything about the way we use the Internet is huge.
And now, scientists have taken Li-Fi out of the lab for the first time, trialling it in offices and industrial environments in Tallinn, Estonia, reporting that they can achieve data transmission at 1 GB per second - that's 100 times faster than current average Wi-Fi speeds.
"We are doing a few pilot projects within different industries where we can utilise the VLC (visible light communication) technology," Deepak Solanki, CEO of Estonian tech company, Velmenni, told IBTimes UK.
"Currently we have designed a smart lighting solution for an industrial environment where the data communication is done through light. We are also doing a pilot project with a private client where we are setting up a Li-Fi network to access the Internet in their office space.”
Li-Fi was invented by Harald Haas from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland back in 2011, when he demonstrated for the first time that by flickering the light from a single LED, he could transmit far more data than a cellular tower. Think back to that lab-based record of 224 gigabits per second - that's 18 movies of 1.5 GB each being downloaded every single second.
The technology uses Visible Light Communication (VLC), a medium that uses visible light between 400 and 800 terahertz (THz). It works basically like an incredibly advanced form of Morse code - just like switching a torch on and off according to a certain pattern can relay a secret message, flicking an LED on and off at extreme speeds can be used to write and transmit things in binary code.
And while you might be worried about how all that flickering in an office environment would drive you crazy, don’t worry - we’re talking LEDs that can be switched on and off at speeds imperceptible to the naked eye.
The benefits of Li-Fi over Wi-Fi, other than potentially much faster speeds, is that because light cannot pass through walls, it makes it a whole lot more secure, and as Anthony Cuthbertson points out at IBTimes UK, this also means there's less interference between devices.
While Cuthbertson says Li-Fi will probably not completely replace Wi-Fi in the coming decades, the two technologies could be used together to achieve more efficient and secure networks.
Our homes, offices, and industry buildings have already been fitted with infrastructure to provide Wi-Fi, and ripping all of this out to replace it with Li-Fi technology isn’t particularly feasible, so the idea is to retrofit the devices we have right now to work with Li-Fi technology.
Research teams around the world are working on just that. Li-Fi experts reported for the The Conversation last month that Haas and his team have launched PureLiFi, a company that offers a plug-and-play application for secure wireless Internet access with a capacity of 11.5 MB per second, which is comparable to first generation Wi-Fi. And French tech company Oledcomm is in the process of installing its own Li-Fi technology in local hospitals.
If applications like these and the Velmenni trial in Estonia prove successful, we could achieve the dream outlined by Haas in his 2011 TED talk below - everyone gaining access to the Internet via LED light bulbs in their home.
"All we need to do is fit a small microchip to every potential illumination device and this would then combine two basic functionalities: illumination and wireless data transmission," Haas said. "In the future we will not only have 14 billion light bulbs, we may have 14 billion Li-Fis deployed worldwide for a cleaner, greener, and even brighter future."
Credit: sciencealert.com
© CrystalWind.ca 2024. All content (articles, imagery, fair use) & design protected. Written permission required for copying. All rights reserved.
Join the Conversation Now! Comment Below!
Spirit Animal Totem Of The Day!
Crystal Of The Day!
Latest Articles
The Crystal Wind Oracle
Myth & Magic Card Deck!
Details Here!
NEW Expanded
Printed & Boxed!
Now with 58 cards!
CrystalWind.ca is free to use because of
donations from people like you.
Donate Now »
Unlock Your Light: Join Lightworkers Worldwide on CrystalWind.ca!
Articles: AndEl: Technology
Follow Us!
Who is Online Now
We have 18597 guests and no members online
Featured This Month
Sun in Sagittarius
An Overview of Sun Sign Characteristics for Sagittarius At the heart of Sagit... Read more
Long Snows Moon
Elk – Obsidian – Black Spruce – Black November 22 to December 21 The Long ... Read more
Sagittarius Mythology
The Sagittarius Myth Other than Virgo, the Sagittarius myth is probably the... Read more
Yule Blessings
Yule The Winter Solstice or Yule is one of the Lesser Wiccan Sabbats, and it ... Read more
Yule - The Winter Solstice
Yule, or the Winter Solstice is one of the lesser Sabbats of the Witches calen... Read more
Winter Solstice - A Season of Giving
CELEBRATING THE WINTER SOLSTICE The December solstice is also known as the ... Read more
Gods and Monsters of the Winter Solstice
La Befana Because Santa Claus has presided over the Yule festival for the las... Read more
Yule By The Hedgewitch
Yule Yule is a solar festival and one of the Minor Sabbats. This is when the ... Read more
Twas The Night Before Yuletide
Yule Chant Brightly burns the Yule log tonight Magic dances in firelight Ho... Read more