The next tech revolution Li-Fi ..... 100 times faster than Wi-Fi

[Ichingcarpenter]

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.

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.

http://www.sciencealert.com/li-fi-tested-in-the-real-world-for-the-first-time-is-100-times-faster-than-wi-fi/



Before mass adoption of Li-Fi can be realised, techniques need to be developed to retrofit current devices with the technology. "It is very difficult to create a whole new infrastructure for Li-Fi so somehow we need integrate our system with the current system," Solanki said.


"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."


http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/lifi-internet-first-real-world-usage-boasts-speed-100-times-faster-wifi-1530021








The Vemenni bulb, using Li-Fi to transfer high speed data using light.


The technology has been trialled by airlines, which want to use it to provide better in-flight connectivity, and intelligence agencies, which are interested in the potential of LiFi for secure wireless data transfers.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/12016196/Li-Fi-100-times-faster-than-Wi-Fi-tests-prove.html

[Ichingcarpenter]

1. No more wi-fi towers one day....... Street Lamps fitted with these bulbs

I wonder about any medical or physiological or health implications with this new technology? I would think it would be safer.

[mindwalker_i]

6. Interesting idea

If one could get internet from street lamps, they would just need something in the home facing it. No more extra wire for data. What I wonder is how one sends a signal back to the lamp.

[dembotoz]

2. still have to back haul it

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. what does that mean?

[DisgustipatedinCA]

7. He means that once the signal leaves the air, it has to get onto wires...

...to reach the rest of the Internet. So you still won't get speeds quite that fast until the entire end-to-end connection is the same speed or faster--a newer version of "weakest link in the chain". As I mentioned to the other poster, this "backhaul" is already in place. The big carriers have lots and lots of spare capacity, they just don't want you to think they do so that they can charge outrageous prices for bandwidth.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

5. The backhaul is in place. We have tens of thousands of miles of dark fiber.

And DWDM is more or less limitless, so with the exception of the very existence of the Comcast corporation, we're all good.

[Hortensis]

3. Always more new "wows" coming along.

Thanks for the enlightenment, Ichingcarpenter.