For most of us, it’s hard to imagine a future without wifi.
But wifi has an ancestor (LI-FI) which is likely to claim its place as leader in the years to come.
In 1880, Alexander Graham Bell gave his first demonstration of Li-Fi communication.
Already famous for the invention of the telephone, he developed the first wireless means of communication capable of transmitting the sound of one’s voice over several hundred meters using sunlight (the photophone).
Unfortunately, his invention was too far ahead of its time, and was shelved as soon as radio communications appeared.
With the technological advances of recent years, this ancestral invention may well end up dethroning Wi-Fi.
What is Light Fidelity?
Li-Fi is a wireless communication technology based on the use of visible light.
It uses a visible (optical) spectrum of the electromagnetic spectrum instead of the radio spectrum used by Wi-Fi.
This technology is based on the coding and exchange of data via amplitude modulation of light sources (flickers impossible to detect by the human eye) according to a defined, standardized protocol.
The advantages and disadvantages of Li-Fi
Li-fi’s theoretical throughput is limited to 1 gigabit/s, i.e. 10 times the capacity of Wi-Fi, thanks to LED bulbs.
What’s more, with a bandwidth 10,000 times greater than Wi-Fi, Li-Fi enables many more people to be connected to a single terminal.
Last but not least, the absence of waves in the use of Light Fidelity is a considerable advantage.
Not only for airplanes (since it eliminates the fear of interference), but also for health, putting to rest the many debates on the harmful effects of waves.
The only drawbacks of this technology are its broadcasting perimeter, currently estimated at around ten meters (distance from the light source), which is a little more than Bluetooth.
And secondly, its adoption requires terminal manufacturers (computers, tablets, smartphones, etc.) to install Light Fidelity-standard LED bulbs.
With such advantages, its adoption by stations, airports, restaurants, hotels, businesses etc. is only a matter of time.
2016 could be the year of the Li-Fi launch, especially as researchers at Oxford University have managed to achieve a data rate of 224 Gbps, and this type of connection does not penetrate walls.
This represents security against Man In the Middle hacking.
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