Li-Fi, something that may not be familiar to a vast majority of people, is more formally known as Light Fidelity. It is a VLC – visible light communication – that delivers high-speed, bidirectional, fully networked wireless communication technology. Recently, scientists have found that it is able to reach speeds that dwarfs even the fastest Wi-Fi speeds.
The test was carried out by scientists at Velmenni, a startup company from Estonia. They found that Li-Fi’s method of creating a wireless network by using light produced by LED light bulbs had blazing speeds when tested in offices and industrial areas. When testing in offices, the scientists were able to to achieve 1GB per second and mind you, that’s Gigabyte, not Gigabit.
With that kind of speed, downloading HD movies and video games would only take a few seconds. This is possible using VLC, which utilises LED lights that flicker very fast, creating a high-speed network. When tested in a lab, scientists found that Li-Fi could reach speeds of up to 224 GB per second.
There are, however, still a few obstacles that this technology has to face before it can be used in the real world. One of the obstacles is that Li-Fi needs visible light to function, and light can’t exactly pass through solid objects like walls. Researches have suggested ways to tackle this problem by fitting a small microchip to suitable light emitting devices which will create a continuous wireless network via visible light.
Don’t get too excited though, researches expect the technology to be rolled out to customers within three to four years from now. Even then, it doesn’t seem like it will be coming to Malaysia for a very long time. Still, this is a big improvement when compared against conventional Wi-Fi; it leaves us something to look forward to in the future.
(Source: The Independent)
