Made-In-China 'Li-Fi' May Be Your Cheapest Wi-Fi Alternative - Lightbulbs At Work

Ambarish Ganesh

Ambarish Ganesh

@ambarish-PQyoXg Oct 22, 2024
Chinese researchers have finally made a breakthrough in the wireless internet segment with Li-Fi technology, where wireless signals get transmitted via lightbulbs. These brilliantly awesome Chinese folks proposed that four computers under a 1 Watt LED lightbulb may connect to the web, principle being that light can act as a carrier instead of conventional radio frequencies. Chi Nan, an IT professor at Shanghai-based Fudan University expanded that a lightbulb having embedded microchips can produce data uploading/downloading speeds of nearly 150 Mbps (Wooot!), and this is way higher that what the average broadband connection in China currently delivers. Also, where Li-fi scores over the traditional Wi-Fi is that it's way to cheaper than the existing wireless signal transmission equipment and offers a much greater efficiency.

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Chi added that as far as cell phones are concerned, millions of base stations across the world contribute to strengthen the signals, but a major part of the energy is juiced up in their cooling systems. She even added that the energy utilization rate was just a mere 5%. Having said that, Chi was quick enough to point out the commercial impracticality of Li-Fi as of now, as when the light will be blocked, it's cut off the signal then and there. A few developments remain to make Li-Fi a commercial success, and the team is currently running experiments for light communication controls, microchip design and manufacturing, among other segments.

Haral Hass from Edinburgh University is the man who bestowed upon this technology the name Li-Fi back in 2011, which stands for 'light-fidelity' and simply refers to a light communication technology that offers high-speed wireless transmissions, somewhat like our very own Wi-fi. Once this tech comes to life, it opens up the Pandora's box to limitless applications, with each and every light source being employed as a data transmitter. Edison would've been proud.

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  • Saandeep Sreerambatla

    Saandeep Sreerambatla

    @saandeep-sreerambatla-hWHU1M Oct 18, 2013

    So switching on the light bulb means the internet is ON and switching it off equals to internet being OFF?

    This is a great invention, my questions so having a bulb alone is sufficient? how do we connect the cable from dataprovider as we do for normal routers at home?

    My assumption is , the bulb alone is sufficient, and we need to connect the cable somehow to the bulb as we connect it to power socket?
  • Ankita Katdare

    Ankita Katdare

    @abrakadabra Oct 18, 2013

    Amazing post! As has been mentioned, Li-fi is definitely more energy-efficient than existing wireless radio systems - as we already have a huge set of LED bulbs and the lighting infrastructure is already in place. So, we are cutting costs right from the beginning.

    Security wise - I think this technology would be better!
    Light cannot penetrate walls as radio signals can, therefore hacking of wireless internet signals would be far more difficult, if not impossible.
  • anupbadru

    anupbadru

    @anupbadru-EN4HyD Oct 18, 2013

    Here Light is the carrier,so what about the range ??? so where the light of bulb doesn't reach ..Data flow will be there or not ??signal will flow or not ??
  • madhu27

    madhu27

    @madhu27-Yq7VLh Oct 18, 2013

    Really amazing invention. What would be the range of data flow?
  • Vinodhini.V

    Vinodhini.V

    @vinodhiniv-hC4ixj Oct 18, 2013

    Really Amazing Post, Do the speed depends upon the watts of the LED bulb we use ??
  • Jeffrey Arulraj

    Jeffrey Arulraj

    @jeffrey-xA7lUP Oct 18, 2013

    Vinodhini.V
    Really Amazing Post, Do the speed depends upon the watts of the LED bulb we use ??
    Watts can play a role

    But more than that the amount of light exposed to the Li-Fi connected device plays a major role

    If your device is exposed to more light more connectivity and vise versa
  • Sarathkumar Chandrasekaran

    Sarathkumar Chandrasekaran

    @sarathkumar-FEGRPw Oct 18, 2013

    If light acts like a carrier and data was transmitted through the light waves, I want to know the following.
    consider a squared room in which the LI-FI is fixed at the one corner and lifi is actuated.So as posted by the informaion,I can download ata speed of 150mbps but if the dppr was closed and I was sitting at the next room what will happen(If the wall can block the passage of light) can still LIFI transmitts the data?
  • Jeffrey Arulraj

    Jeffrey Arulraj

    @jeffrey-xA7lUP Oct 18, 2013

    Not exactly you will have no data connectivity in the other room as you are out of the range of the lifi system
    SarathKumar Chandrasekaran
    I was sitting at the next room what will happen(If the wall can block the passage of light) can still LIFI transmitts the data?
  • durga ch

    durga ch

    @durga-TpX3gO Oct 18, 2013

    ..and interference??