Li-Fi is 100 times faster than Wi-Fi. LED lights could be used for delivering data

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in internet on (#X2TH)
Li-Fi is a new method of delivering data. It uses the visible spectrum rather than radio waves. For the first time, this new technology has been tested in a working office. Li-Fi is a wireless technology that transmits high-speed data using visible light communication. The Li-Fi system uses standard light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to transmit electronic data signals, which will enable users to access the internet through the ordinary lighting systems in schools, workplaces and homes.

With scientists achieving speeds of 224 gigabits per second in the lab using Li-Fi earlier this year, the potential for this technology 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.

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. The flickering of light is too fast for humans to notice.

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34942685
Reply 8 comments

Too fast for humans to notice? (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2015-12-09 03:09 (#X3KS)

Like the spinning color wheel in DLP projectors that causes a noticeable and intolerably distracting "screen door effect" in a sizable minority of people?

Never underestimate the brain.

/have no idea of the science on this

Re: Too fast for humans to notice? (Score: 1)

by Anonymous Coward on 2015-12-10 08:45 (#X7WR)

Never underestimate hackers. There was a suggestion for using lasers for transmittting data in the office to reduce cabling. Lasers. Across the office ceilings. Carrying corporate data. Think about that for a moment.

Re: Too fast for humans to notice? (Score: 1)

by Anonymous Coward on 2015-12-10 20:21 (#XA4Z)

Not sure what you think the problem is? Laser diodes are pretty cheap these days and the ones in laser pointers focus pretty well. If the receivers don't reflect the laser back out, then it seems like a wire that you don't have to snake through the ceiling. Interrupted by paper airplanes? What's the problem??

Re: Too fast for humans to notice? (Score: 2, Insightful)

by Anonymous Coward on 2015-12-11 08:17 (#XBPC)

I think the suggestion was that light scatters, and the corporate data could be read by just anybody, regardless of relationship with the company. Meantime, my workplace hasn't even managed to get 100 megabit working at faster than 300k/sec for a workplace of around a dozen people.

Some problems (Score: 2, Informative)

by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2015-12-09 13:23 (#X500)

Of course this isn't the first time light has been used for computer communications. IrDA was the wireless communications protocol of choice before WiFi ever appeared, with IrLAN access point-type devices allowing rooms full of PDAs to connect to the local network, and the internet, wirelessly.

While WiFi is relatively slow, much faster WiDi/Miracast/WiGig has been around in niche applications for a few years. The high frequencies used have some of the same limitations as visible light communications, which has limited adoption thus far. Since people will continue to want WiFi, WiGig will integrate much better with it.

Li-Fi has some serious limitation... Significant expense to upgrade your lights, or at least their controllers. And only one-way communications at those speeds... Your computers, laptops and smartphones will need some way to send information back. That would mean lights in your devices, and optical pickups all over the building.

Re: Some problems (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2015-12-11 08:20 (#XBPS)

Could be more useful as a backbone than having to run cables across a room. Or you could put it behind a false ceiling, and nobody would see it except for a technician who might clean a lens every few years.

Re: Some problems (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2015-12-17 10:31 (#XZER)

It's a solved problem, especially for backbone links, and was the longhaul link of choice in every large LAN infrastructure project I've ever seen.

Re: Some problems (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2015-12-19 23:27 (#Y7QW)

That's not funny. Surely you know we're talking about through-the-air transmission, and specifically not cabling.