Is WiFi about to Die?
A new innovation in technology is making waves, so to speak, in the form of light. This is referred to as LiFi, a way to transmit data, just as WiFi does, but is said to be 100 times faster. LiFi has already been introduced as early as 2011 but it is just recently that it has been tested in the real world.
Velmenni is the company behind the demonstration, wherein they came up with a lightbulb that worked with LiFi technology and was able to transfer data at the incredible speed of 1Gbps.
What exactly is LiFi technology?
Li-Fi stands for “Light Fidelity” and is a term coined by professor and engineer, Harald Haas, from the University of Edinburg in 2011. This technology delivers data using light as opposed to the radio waves used by Wi-Fi. In a nutshell, this is the optical version of Wi-Fi. For this to work, the user will need a photo detector, internet connection and a light source, which can be a LED bulb.
With the use of visible light for transmission, Li-Fi has the capability to increase the bandwidth 100 times more, making it faster than Wi-Fi. According to tests, downloading a 18 videos of 1.5 GB each will be done in a split second using Li-Fi technology. During test done in real world, it was able to transmit 1GB of data in a second.
One of the advantages seen by its creators is security. Since light is not able to pass through walls, data will be kept protected. Moreover, it can also be used in aircrafts since it does not interfere with radio signals.
However, a setback mentioned by the team is its inability to work properly in direct sunlight since it will interfere with other signals. In the meantime, they see Li-Fi to co-exist with Wi-Fi, where users can interchangeably utilize the two. Also, they recommend this to be used in institutions where Wi-Fi connection are not safe to use, such as in hospitals.
As for the question whether this innovation threatens Wi-Fi technology, its creators see it as more of a co-existence rather than a replacement.
