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BEACON TRANSCRIPT – If you haven’t heard of Li-Fi yet, be prepared to see it popping on the Interwebs more and more in the coming months, as scientists may have found the potential successor to Wi-Fi.
You might think you have it good in your country, but this new technology transmits data 100 times faster than the average wireless connection. According to a report in the Christian Science Monitor, Li-Fi can transmit up to 1 gigabit per second – which is a whopping 500 times faster than the first reiteration of Wi-Fi of up to 2 megabits per second.
Li-Fi transmits strings of data through the power created by LED bulbs turning on and off billions of times per second – similar to the way Morse code operates – but millions of times faster. This fast-delivering Internet is actually visible to the human eye, which means we can see the lights, but not the fast flicker of lights.
On the outside, the Li-Fi bulb doesn’t look any different than the next bulb, but it has the added benefit of being able to transmit ultra-fast Internet. And the project has already passed into the trial phase as an Estonian tech company called Velmenni has already tested the Li-Fi bulbs in its offices.
During lab testing, the bulbs performed at speeds of up to 224 gigabits per second, while the real-life setting measured 1 gigabit per second. The transmission difference is explained by factors like movement and light interference. Fitting the smart LED bulbs in offices or industrial parks could provide fast Internet as well as illumination.
But this technology has one big flaw: its reach. Light cannot move through solid objects – think walls and furniture – which means a Li-Fi access point can cover only one room. A house or an apartment would need several smart LEDs for the entire space to have Internet access, although this would greatly limit the wireless interference.
If you live in an apartment block, you probably noticed that your devices can connect to their Wi-Fi networks. Because they tend to share the same frequencies, these networks add to the chances of interfering with one another, leading to slowed Internet speeds. Li-Fi won’t have this problem, however, because its area is contained within the walls of a room.
This give Li-Fi much more security than Wi-Fi, seeing that its signal cannot be picked by devices outside the walls of a room. With the Li-Fi technology still in in the bud, some years will pass before it can lead the Internet speed revolution worldwide.
Image Source: Qrz Now
