Li-Fi internet via the light is 100 times faster than WiFi – ZDNet.be

Li-Fi, high-speed alternative to wifi that works via LED light, has finally left the research lab and was first tested in the real world. Estonian start-up Velmenni has deployed the technology successfully for several pilot projects in Tallinn, capital of Estonia.

“Currently, we have designed a solution for industrial environments where data communication is via light. We are also doing a pilot project with a private customer, where we set up a Li-Fi network to connect to their office to the Internet, “says CEO Deepak Solanki to IBTimes.

Browsing the light

The Li-Fi technology uses visible LED light to transmit data at speeds much higher than what is possible today via your Wi-Fi network. Velmenni knew in his pilot tests already achieving speeds up to 1 Gbps, about 100 times faster than WiFi, but the potential of Li-Fi is much higher. Researchers were already achieving speeds of up to 224 gigabits per second in laboratory tests.

The technology was developed in 2011 by Professor Harald Haas of the University of Edinburgh, and uses LEDs that are a thousand times a second input and off. To the human eye which flicker is not noticeable, but by adjusting the length of the light pulses, messages can be sent.

In order to maintain a Li-Fi connection, transmitter and receiver must at all times be able to directly observe each other’s light pulses. That makes the technology more secure than WiFi, but also immediately shows the greatest disadvantage. Li-Fi can not through walls and wifi or 4G will never be able to replace all.

No substitute

The technologies may well be a good complement to each other. Li-Fi takes the pressure off the already overloaded radio spectrum and can be useful as a quick and energy-efficient solution for the Internet of Things, which is currently hard at the break.

If the pilots positive printouts, Velmenni than expected Li-Fi networks already in three or four years can be rolled out to consumers. The greatest challenge here is to adapt the existing infrastructure to the technology. “It is extremely difficult to create a completely new infrastructure for Li-Fi,” said Solanki. “We need to integrate the technology in some way in the existing system.”

According to Professor Harald Haas, any LED light in the future may be as user-speed alternative to wifi. “In the future we will not only have 14 billion light bulbs, we will have rolled out worldwide perhaps 14 billion Li-Fis for a cleaner, greener and brighter future.”