As we use the Internet for more tasks, we have to think about its replacement
LiFi is a technology that is postulated as a substitute for WiFi, multiplying its speed by 100
How is it possible that the lights manage to emit a signal, and what obstacles does this industry encounter?
There is no doubt that our demand for fast and stable connections has grown like never before in recent years. Even before the lockdown, but especially after that event, practically everything we do now depends on having a network. In this context, for some, LiFi is the future of high-speed Internet through the lights at home. But how does this system work and what advantages does it have?
As we said, being connected to the Internet today is essential to chat, buy products in stores, post on social networks, send work emails and even check the weather. Many even take advantage of their connections to do business onlinewhich are infinite.
This unstoppable development of information technologies leads us to think that future generations will have even more needs than ourselves, and that is why professionals work tirelessly to propose some connectivity solutions that go beyond current home WiFi networks.
What exactly is LiFi technology?
LiFi technology is an emerging wireless system that uses light to obtain the signal that allows data to be transmitted at a very high speed. An option that causes expectation because its proliferation should help us to put an end to some of the problems of WiFi, such as micro-cuts or saturation of the width.
The fact is that its diffusion is being slower than most of us probably expected when we were first told about this product. We are talking about a presentation by the German physicist Harald Haas, who commented on the possibilities of this alternative at the University of Edinburgh, in a Global TED Talk in 2011.
Haas, who would eventually be known as “the father of LiFi,” has spent years working on the potential of wireless communications. Even today, WiFi technology relies on radio frequencies and routers. This means that we deal with various imitations in terms of the capacity of the service and its falls.
The answer, for this and other experts, is that each of the lights in the house connect to the Internet. pureLiFi, one of the many startups that research and create products compatible with this technology, explains that among its characteristics we have bidirectionality, which makes several lamps join in a single network, and improve the performance of the connections they provide. Thanks to this, its speed can be up to 100 times higher than that of current WiFi. Does not require antennas, radio circuits, receivers or routers.
How can lights generate WiFi?
The Internet by means of lights will arrive at some point, of that we can be sure, and it will with the promise of providing connectivity and not only lighting, in a safer, faster, more profitable and efficient way. But even when we are convinced of all this, it does not explain how the system actually works.
base, LiFi uses visible light for data transmission, and can be a fluorescent light or an LED light. Keep in mind that LED lights are the optimal VLC light source, because they act like semiconductors.
The output modulates at an extremely high rate to achieve a balance between lighting and the VLC light source. This modulation is detected by the photodiode device and then converted into electrical current. This blinking will not affect you in terms of brightness because it takes one thousandth, imperceptible to the eye.
Once the signals are received and decoded by the device, they are converted into a continuous stream of binary data containing images, audio, text, videos and any applications, so there are no content hiccups.
Benefits of LiFi
LiFi is more efficient in general than WiFi, because it uses an already lit LED light, without generating additional consumption, reducing the energy budget to which we are forced by the interest in staying connected.
It’s also more reliable because, unlike WiFi, light can’t pass through walls. Transmitted data cannot be easily breached and the connection is only available to users within that room.
In terms of speed, we have already clarified enough, and it is that the specialists believe that, a LiFi at an advanced point of development, will take its loading and unloading of elements to up to 250 times faster than WiFi.
