The connected home is only as connected as it’s network. With the invention of Li-Fi by Harald Haas in 2011, a new type of network is taking form and it has shown to be 100 times faster than Wi-Fi and more secure.
Recently, Li-Fi was tested in offices and industrial environments in Tallinn, Estonia. During this test, they achieved data transmission at 1 GB per second – that’s 100 times faster than current average Wi-Fi speeds.
“We are doing a few pilot projects within different industries where we can utilise the VLC (visible light communication) technology,” Deepak Solanki, CEO of Estonian tech company, Velmenni, told IBTimes UK.
“Currently we have designed a smart lighting solution for an industrial environment where the data communication is done through light. We are also doing a pilot project with a private client where we are setting up a Li-Fi network to access the Internet in their office space.”
How It Works
The technology uses Visible Light Communication (VLC), a medium that uses visible light between 400 and 800 terahertz (THz). It works like an incredibly advanced form of Morse code – just like switching a torch on and off according to a certain pattern can relay a secret message, flicking an LED on and off at extreme speeds can be used to write and transmit things in binary code.
Even though the lighting is admitting the flickering transmission of data, it is completely unnoticable. The LEDs are switched on and off at speeds imperceptible to the naked eye.
Li-Fi has additional benefits over Wi-Fi, other than the much faster speeds. Light cannot pass through walls, which makes Li-Fi a whole lot more secure than Wi-Fi. This also means there’s less interference between devices.
Haas and his team have launched PureLiFi, a company that offers a plug-and-play application for secure wireless Internet access with a capacity of 11.5 MB per second, which is comparable to first generation Wi-Fi.
With the recent test in Estonia proving successful, it is becoming more clear that Haas’ vision of everyone gaining access to the Internet via LED light bulbs in their home is coming true. Watch his 2011 TED Talk below.