Wi-fi Will Soon Be A Thing Of The Past, Li-Fi: Ultrafast New Technology Uses Your LIGHTS And Is 100 times faster than current systems

Li-Fi is short for 'light fidelity,' and performs with lightning speed.

The system uses visible light communication (VLC), between 400 and 800 terahertz (THz) to transmit messages in binary code, but operates at speeds that are too high to be detected by the naked eye.
It works on the frequencies generated by an LED bulb.



Li-Fi has hit speeds of more than 200 Gbps in the lab, fast enough to 'download the equivalent of 23 DVDs in one second,' Suat Topsu, founder and head of Oledcomm, told AFP.

'Li-Fi allows speeds that are 100 times faster than W-Fi, which uses radio waves to transmit data,' Topsu said.

This technology emerged from the laboratories in 2015 to be tested in everyday settings in France, including museums and shopping malls.

It has also been tested in Belgium, Estonia and India.

Analysts have predicted that internet-connected devices will soar to 50 million in just four years, and the short supply of radio waves used for Wi-Fi will become crowded.

'We are going to connect our coffee machine, our washing machine, our tooth brush. But you can't have more than ten objects connected in Bluetooth or Wi-Fi without interference,' Topsu told AFP.
Now, Li-Fi may not be a far off reality.

Deepak Solanki, the founder and chief executive of Estonian firm Velmenni which tested Li-Fi in an industrial space last year, told AFP he expected that 'two years down the line the technology can be commercialised and people can see its use at different levels.'

Still, it's unclear whether Li-Fi will push Wi-Fi aside in the years to come.

'It is still a laboratory technology,' Frederic Sarrat, an analyst and consultancy firm PwC, told AFP.
Wi-Fi may continue to evolve, and improve its own capabilities, and this could determine how the role of Li-Fi factors in, according to Gartner chief analyst Jim Tully.

'Wi-Fi has shown a capability to continuously increase its communication speed with each successive generation of the technology,' he told AFP.

Since Li-Fi is based on visible light communication, it can't pass through walls, and the device has to be directly in contact with the light.

And, Li-Fi capable devices must be equipped with a card reader, or dongle, to work with the technology, which is a 'cost disadvantage,' according to Tully.

The space constraint acts as both a drawback and advantage, limiting usage to a smaller space, but better protecting devices from data theft.

Source: Daily Mail
Posted by Kris Akudo at 1:46PM