by Angela Guess
Bernard Marr recently wrote in Forbes, “The enormous demand for WiFi and transmissions of mass quantities of data is putting a strain on the current technologies. With the predicted exponential growth of mobile devices, by 2019 more than ten billion mobile devices will exchange 35 quintillion (1018) bytes of information each month — and that’s just mobile devices. Factor in traditional computers, big data servers, and Internet of Things devices and you start to see the magnitude of the problem. But scientists have discovered a method of data transmission more than 100 times faster than traditional WiFi, and it only requires that you turn on a light.”
Marr continues, “LiFi is a category of Visible Light Communication; an LED light flickers at speeds undetectable to the naked eye to transmit data — a bit like high tech morse code. In fact, scientists have demonstrated in a lab that they can transmit information at as much as 224 gigabits per second, the equivalent of 18 movies of 1.5 GB each being downloaded every single second. In an office setting, they were able to achieve speeds up to 100 times faster than average WiFi speeds. The LED lights require so little energy, they can be powered by a standard ethernet cord. Inventor Harald Haas has also suggested that the smart lights could be powered by solar cells charging batteries. In addition, LiFi does not create electromagnetic interference the way WiFi does, meaning it could have important applications in sensitive locations like healthcare facilities.”
photo credit: Flickr/ frankieleon