Li-Fi: Can it light up the digital communication

I live in a country where the technology and networking is just started to pick up pace. We are still on 2G/3G/4G networks with not necessarily getting the quality of data speed. The disconnections are frequent and promises of MBps merely trickles to few KBps or worse. Modest downloads, hilariously sometime shows weeks’ time to complete. In this scenario sometimes I imagine, what would it be like to have a speed at which I don’t have to wait for streaming, buffering and that too in full HD or Blu-ray quality. It looks little out of league as of now but companies are working hard to grab a share by improving their infrastructure, technology upgrade and competitive price. I was reading across such advancements and breakthroughs and came across one such cutting edge technology which is still in its nascent stage but conceptualization was done at the starting of this decade. I am talking about Li-Fi just like Wi-Fi.

Frankly speaking, I have come through this word couple of years back as well, when Philips launched the first Li-Fi product in 2014 and is currently pioneer in commercializing the technology.  It takes time for any breakthrough from getting conceptualize from idea to implementation to mass production in cost effective way and that too with scalability. But now things look promising as this technology has cleared many hurdles and now ready to be launched by big giants such as Philips to launch it this year. Let’s look on what is Li-Fi and what is so exciting about it.

WHAT IS LI-FI?

Li-Fi sounds like Wi-Fi as it is very much on the same lines. As Wi-Fi stands for wireless fidelity, though there is an argument that Wi-Fi is a whole term and not an acronym of anything but that is a story for another time. However, Li-Fi stands for Light Fidelity and is first used in TED Talk in the University of Edinburgh. This concept was first conceived by professor Harald Haas of the university. Actually, it is a way of transferring data or maintaining communication between the devices using light just like optical fiber but with more common devices like LED lights. Li-Fi currently uses visible light spectrum to transmit data. However Infrared or Ultraviolet radiation can also be used. It works on same principles as Wi-Fi which uses radio signals. Li-Fi works on the similar standards set by IEEE 802.11 section. We can say Li-Fi is a part of Optical Wireless Communications category and is Visible Light Communication (VLC) system.

Current Scenario

Li-Fi is also bidirectional, which means that it can transfer and receive the data at same time. The problem with current scenarios is that we are heavily dependent on Radio frequency which is getting clogged day by day. According to one such study our data consumption is going to increase from anywhere between 20 folds to an upper bound of 667 folds and that too in a time of 20 year or in just 2 decades. A forecast shows that the total connected devices will reach to 20billion by year 2020 that is just 2 years from now (2018). We seriously need to consider other options as radio radiation has already notoriously gained as one of the cause of modern ailments. Li-Fi can be answer to it. Li-Fi has tremendous capacity to outshine radio bandwidth by up to 2600 times. A simple calculation shows that by using just a fraction of its capacity we can solve the bandwidth congestion problem with many decades to come.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

The easiest way to understand it to take an example of a light bulb as a single bit. For example, if light bulb is lit, that means it is transmitting information that it is on much like bit is having a value of 1. Similarly, if the bulb is not lit is synonymous to bit is 0. Now if we switch on and off the bulb in series, we are propagating information much like a network. Now, imagine switching on and off so fast that human eye cannot event tell the difference. This is not possible with filament lights but LED can sure do it. They are made of semi-conductors which can transmit electric signals (on) or block them (off) at very high speed. This frequency of on and off LED lights is used to propagate the data. The receiving end have the photo sensor which detects this on and off sequence and convert it into bits of information. This stream can be processed into usable content by some processor in form of video, audio, text etc.

What are the benefits?

There are many advantages attached with this technology. Firstly, it is less susceptible to electromagnetic interference. It also has higher transmission speed, which boils down to higher data speed which we all want. Using light is lot cleaner than radio wave as light only works in transparent medium like air, which means that there are lot less chances of interference between multiple devices like we have with radio waves as they can penetrate objects and human tissues as well. Apart from having bandwidth thousands of time greater than radio, in lab trials it has reached to the transmission rate of unimaginable speed of 224Gbps. The technology is ten times cheaper than Wi-Fi. The other aspect can be its short range and impenetrable to solid objects so it can be used in data sensitive areas like library, military, hospitals etc. with less worry on data hacking from outside the walls.

 Latest Developments

Currently, most of the technology giants are working one way or another to increase the bandwidth of the network. This might be the next generation solution for the data hungry apps. There are companies working just on that. The current trend shows that Li-Fi is improving its annual growth rate steadily to 82% with in span of 5 years from 2013 to 2018 and standing at the 6Billion $ per year market. PureLi-Fi, or earlier known as pureVLC, is an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) firm which is working on Li-Fi products commercialization. From 2011 many companies have made major breakthroughs in this field. In 2013, Chinese manufacturers were developing kit for Li-Fi. In 2014 Stins Coman a Russian company developed local network named as Beamcaster which is working on 1.25 to 5GBps speed currently. Sisoft a Mexican company set a record of transfer at 10GBps.  From then there are many advancements in photo electric field like implementation of avalanche photodiodes(APD). Increasing APD energy efficiency by Geiger mode as single photon avalanche diode (SPAD) for low light detection beyond human eye can detect are few to name.

Recently Philips has announced that it is conduction a test in real world scenario in collaboration with French architecture firm in Paris. “Our reputation for innovation is unrivaled in our industry and this year we’ve raised the bar even higher,” commented Eric Rondolat, CEO of Philips Lighting. “Our latest LED innovations range from beautiful vintage-looking lamps to equipping some of our most popular office luminaries to provide Li-Fi, a game-changing technology that allows broadband Internet through light waves. And as lighting becomes truly smart, our Internet of Things Interact platform will create data-enabled services for customers that deliver benefits beyond illumination.”

Frequent Queries

The Li-Fi light modulation or fluctuation is imperceptible to human eye thus it will be seen as though the LED light is just lit like a regular light, thus you won’t see the light flickering. Li-Fi can be modified to work in direct sunlight conditions to low lit or dark room using different spectrum of light so that you don’t have intrusive light always lit at night time or bad quality in sunlight conditions. Li-Fi won’t work in situations where there is no path between sender and receiver or there is physical obstruction like in your pocket. However, light has bouncing property in adequate condition ambient Li-Fi light can work as well. Currently Li-Fi is complementary technology rather than replacement technology.

Li-Fi Potential Applications & Uses

There can be many uses for such versatile technology. Light is our natural resource by simply installing Li-Fi enabled lights in our rooms can help us solving WIFI signal problems. But we cannot have light on all the time especially in night. The solution for this is utilizing the infrared spectrum. It is best to have Li-Fi in locations like Hospitals, flammable locations to avoid radio radiation.

 Thoughts

The exciting part of this technical jump is that it may not require complicated equipment to work with. Since it is based on light spectrum simple photo sensors can be attached with the device through usb like a dongle or new generation device can be enabled within built sensors to detect Li-Fi. This is almost same as we have sensors in our gadgets to detect ambient light in the background. For example, at the time of taking selfies etc.

In my opinion, the technology that is fast, clean, affordable, have high bandwidth should be adopted at rapid rate and we should do away with older radio technology. I admit it is not as simple as it sounds. Li-Fi has its own implication of short distance, physical interference and more importantly scalability. Plus, it is more suitable to stationary devices moving around may cause data connection loss due to physical hindrance or directional difference. but every upcoming tech has faced challenges in its own time. It has to face tough competition with upcoming other advancements as well like Wi-Fi 5G. Whether Li-Fi will stand up to the test only time will tell.

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References -

What Is Li-Fi? The New Alternative To Wi-Fi: https://www.fastcodesign.com/90164732/what-is-li-fi-the-new-alternative-to-wi-fi

LED lightbulbs that replace Wi-Fi networks are being tested in the real world: http://bgr.com/2018/03/20/li-fi-bulbs-vs-wifi-cost-effectiveness/

Philips Lighting announces LiFi IoT platform at Light + Building 2018: http://www.manufacturingglobal.com/technology/philips-lighting-announces-lifi-iot-platform-light-building-2018

Li-Fi: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li-Fi

Pure LiFi: https://purelifi.com/technology/

What is Li-Fi? | The ultimate definition of Li-Fi: https://www.techworld.com/data/what-is-li-fi-everything-you-need-know-3632764/

An office in France is testing Li-Fi technology for the first time : https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/lifi-philips-lighting/

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