The inventors of the artificial lighting Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison may have created it for lighting purposes, but little did they know that it could eventually be used for high-speed Internet technology that was only invented seventy years later. It is a good thing about inventions that we just don’t know where they will eventually lead us. Nowadays, Wi-Fi is the primary wireless internet dispensation technology that provides connectivity in every other building. But, technologies turn obsolete, and the advent of the faster Li-Fi means that Wi-Fi will be replaced in the coming years.
The Li-Fi uses visible light communication spectrum to transmit data through the thin air. It was developed by Harold Haas in the University of Edinburgh, Scotland in 2011 and it can relay data at tremendous speeds, almost hundred times faster than the previous technology Wi-Fi up to 224 gigabits per second. Wi-Fi is only capable of achieving 600 megabits per second, so that is something isn’t it?
A small Estonian startup named Velmenni has set up real life applications of the technology for the first time. They first undertook trials in their offices and were able to achieve speeds closing in on one gigabit per second. It also boasts several advantages over Wi-Fi as it is restricted by visual fields, so it doesn’t penetrate the walls and become a privacy and security threat. There are certain other limitations as well like your connection will be lost when you go outside the room or place any light obstructing barrier in particular. It would be interesting to see what will happen to the signals when we put our smartphones in our pockets. This barrier of the technology must be overcome if we want to implement it. Velmenni also plans to release the technology in a much wider range of frequencies. Currently, the Wi-Fi is operated between 2.4-5GHz frequency.
LI-Fi is a possible solution for the network congestion being faced by people using Wi-Fi in large numbers. The world leader in networking systems, CISCO in a Traffic Forecast said that the monthly usage of internet is expected to grow more than 24.3 Exabytes by 2019 and such that the slow Wi-Fi technology won’t be able to keep up with the demands by then. Networking needs a new WLAN technology, and Li-Fi is one the most promising one right now! Although it remains to be seen whether it can be incorporated into such a user base, we will see Li-Fi in one form or another as Disney is one of the companies who is working on toys based on Li-Fi technology. One of them is a magic Li-Fi wand that can be used to control light bulbs on a dress.