Forget Wi-Fi, Newly Tested Li-Fi is 100 Times Faster

[Steven Bogos]

Forget Wi-Fi, Newly Tested Li-Fi is 100 Times Faster

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Li-fi utilizes a light source, such as an LED bulb, to deliver speeds of up to 1 Gbps.

If you ask any serious online gamer, they will tell you that having a direct cable to your router is much better than relying on wi-fi. While wi-fi is perfect for general internet browsing, for games and downloads it's just not fast or reliable enough. But that may all change with the newly tested technology of "li-fi", which can achieve stable speeds up to 100 times faster than wi-fi.

It was tested this week by Estonian start-up Velmenni, in Tallinn, who managed to achieve speeds of 1 Gbps.

Li-fi uses a light source, such as an LED bulb, along with a photo detector on the other end. As well as having the advantage of turning every light in your house into a hotspot, li-fi does not interfere with other radio signals, so could be utilized on aircraft and in other places where interference is an issue.

However, despite the lightning fast speeds, it does have a few drawbacks, namely, unlike wi-fi it cannot travel through walls, so you need a clear line of vision from the light source to your machine. Similarly, it doesn't really work outside, due to interference from the sun.

Velmenni tested the technoloy using light bulbs in an office, to allow workers to access the internet and in an industrial space, where it provided a smart lighting solution.

Source: BBC [http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34942685]

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[Noble_Lance]

Does it work in a series of bulbs such as taking one, aiming it at another, or in a position for another, and then running a chain to another room.

 

[Diablo1099_v1legacy]

...So basically, the internet is being sent on beams of light now?
Now, to see a sudden rise in the interest of solar power

 

[mad825]

If you ask any serious online gamer, they will tell you that having a direct cable to your router is much better than relying on wi-fi. While wi-fi is perfect for general internet browsing, for games and downloads it's just not fast or reliable enough. But that may all change with the newly tested technology of "li-fi", which can achieve stable speeds up to 100 times faster than wi-fi.

Great logic....Now that's required is a nuclear bunker and persuading the gamer to keep the lights on. WI-FI may not be perfect but maintaining a connection is more reliable than having only be able to use it from dusk to dawn.

Hell, WI-FI is more energy efficient. WI-FI uses approximately ~6W while light bulbs use ~6-60W dependent of the type of bulb you use.

 

[snintendog]

nothing new its called fiber optic but with no cable, less reliable, harder to setup in a realistic environment, and a ton more interference from everything including its own light being reflected at another angle. Li-Fi is dead after conception. Still waiting for Fiber optic in wired networking to be less temperamental.

 

[Jadak]

Great logic....Now that's required is a nuclear bunker and persuading the gamer to keep the lights on. WI-FI may not be perfect but maintaining a connection is more reliable than having only be able to use it from dusk to dawn.

Hell, WI-FI is more energy efficient. WI-FI uses approximately ~6W while light bulbs use ~6-60W dependent of the type of bulb you use.

Keep in mind that it doesn't need to be very bright, just bright enough for the sensor to be able to pick up changes in brightness. Theoretically, that should still be able to work if you get something capable of emitting extremely low amounts of light.

Still, where would this even be setup? Is it meant to share the same lights as your room lights? How would you get the data to those in the first place? Are we talking about a relay of lightbulbs and sensors? Do you have to wire up the lightbulbs? And presumably, this is one way?

Certainly interesting, but looking forward to what people come up with for practical implementations.

 

[RJ 17]

Still, where would this even be setup? Is it meant to share the same lights as your room lights? How would you get the data to those in the first place? Are we talking about a relay of lightbulbs and sensors? Do you have to wire up the lightbulbs? And presumably, this is one way?

Certainly interesting, but looking forward to what people come up with for practical implementations.

From the sound of things the info light is on the modem and you've got a receiver on your computer. As the article says: this would require direct line of sight between your computer and the info source.

I guess "in theory" you could get it to work with your computer in another room by setting up a series of mirrors...but I don't know if that would actually work. That's the benefit of wi-fi though: you could be in a completely different place in the house/building and still get it where as with this it seems you need to be in the same room as the modem.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Huh. Well, that was a development I didn't see coming. Sounds neat but if it requires line of sight cats will become the interrupter of signal.

Why?

Have you ever met a cat that didn't know the exact position to get in the way of human needs?

 

[Pyrian]

Hell, WI-FI is more energy efficient. WI-FI uses approximately ~6W while light bulbs use ~6-60W dependent of the type of bulb you use.

Dude, these are LED bulbs. A very bright (100W-equivalent) indoor LED is 13W, with most examples being more like 4W. And keep in mind that they also illuminate, which WI-FI does not. So instead of spending 6W on Wi-Fi and another, say, 8W on lighting, you could combine them for maybe 10W (more than 8W but certainly less than 14W).

And none of these numbers are a lot of power, anyway. If you replace your 100W incandescent with a 15W Li-Fi, you're saving a large percentage, but probably small potatoes compared to your computer/monitor setup, nevermind if there's any sort of HVAC involved...

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Have you ever met a cat that didn't know the exact position to get in the way of human needs?

"Uh-oh, there is a human getting a perfect connection! WE MUST FOIL HIM!"

OT: As many have mentioned, neat theory, but applying it seems...futile at best.

 

[EndlessSporadic]

I'm curious to see where this goes. Even if this technology is used as a means of establishing another wifi hotspot closer to your device it still has practical uses, especially in places where weight is important and line of sight can be a thing. Removing wires is always a good thing as long as something reliable can take its place.

 

[direkiller]

It's less Wi-fi
and more a Heloiograph

I can see thing being useful to have a reliable connection when stretching a cable across the room is not an option, but it seem rather pointless otherwise.

 

[Remus]

This sounds great for college classrooms, net cafes, tournaments and the like, but for general purpose home use, not so much unless we could set up mirror mazes like in the Prince of Persia games (which, lets face it, would look kinda cool at night). If this tech were to hit the consumer market, I would expect the cost of mirrors to increase 10 fold at minimum, with optional prismatic lenses to shift signal direction.

 

[Erttheking]

I came in wondering what the catch was. Now I've seen it. Directly line of sight? Hm...guys you might want to take this one back to the lab for a bit and work that problem out, it's kind of a deal breaker.

 

[Zacharious-khan]

I dont want to say completely worthless but Just wiring your devices would be faster in your own house, cheaper too. And long range, Wifi bandwidth is not the issue it's ISP throttling. I guess its neat though...

 

[Naldan]

I live in Germany. So there's that.

(average realistic speed is about 500 kb/s, nation wide, except for core urban areas)

I came in wondering what the catch was. Now I've seen it. Directly line of sight? Hm...guys you might want to take this one back to the lab for a bit and work that problem out, it's kind of a deal breaker.

It's rather easy to manage, at least to me. If all solutions fail for you, you could theoretically get a dedicated light source that is flexible. If, hypothetically, the internet were as fast as this li-fi, I think it would be worth these minimal compromises you might have to do. Like not standing/sitting in line of sight.

And seeing light-sources is for dedicated cameras, as far as I know, one of the easiest things to program and engineer.

 

[crimson5pheonix]

nothing new its called fiber optic but with no cable, less reliable, harder to setup in a realistic environment, and a ton more interference from everything including its own light being reflected at another angle. Li-Fi is dead after conception. Still waiting for Fiber optic in wired networking to be less temperamental.

I like how you were the only person to pick up on the fact that it's fiber optics without the fiber. You don't need to run cables everywhere! But you can't go around a corner :\

 

[Dimitriov]

nothing new its called fiber optic but with no cable, less reliable, harder to setup in a realistic environment, and a ton more interference from everything including its own light being reflected at another angle. Li-Fi is dead after conception. Still waiting for Fiber optic in wired networking to be less temperamental.

I like how you were the only person to pick up on the fact that it's fiber optics without the fiber. You don't need to run cables everywhere! But you can't go around a corner :\

Indeed. As far as I can see this has no advantage over using a cable. All the non-connected advantages of wi-fi have to do with mobility. This sounds neat, but useless.

 

[crimson5pheonix]

nothing new its called fiber optic but with no cable, less reliable, harder to setup in a realistic environment, and a ton more interference from everything including its own light being reflected at another angle. Li-Fi is dead after conception. Still waiting for Fiber optic in wired networking to be less temperamental.

I like how you were the only person to pick up on the fact that it's fiber optics without the fiber. You don't need to run cables everywhere! But you can't go around a corner :\

Indeed. As far as I can see this has no advantage over using a cable. All the non-connected advantages of wi-fi have to do with mobility. This sounds neat, but useless.

Worse than useless. If I've intuited how they have this system working right, you can't have more than one device connected per room. Even if I'm mistaken, it just means you would need a different color light for each device in the same room.

 

[Caffiene]

Sooooo... wheres the 100x faster?

The quoted speed is 1 Gbps. Standard commercially available 802.11AC wireless can already get reasonably close to 1 Gbps on a single antenna, never mind 802.11AD and other prospective technologies that use traditional higher frequency EMF bands. 1 Gbps isnt even 1.5x faster than current tech, let alone 100x faster than equivalent in-development tech.

Data through light has all sorts of interesting niche applications, but this article just comes across like "Hey guys this new stuff is a revolution, its so much better than carrier pigeons!"