Internet by light promises to leave Wi-Fi eating dust
Internet by light promises to leave Wi-Fi eating dust
AFP By Laure Fillon
11 hours ago
The Li-Fi technology uses the frequencies generated by
LED lights to beam information through the air
Barcelona (AFP) - Connecting your smartphone to the web
with just a lamp -- that is the promise of Li-Fi, featuring Internet access 100
times faster than Wi-Fi with revolutionary wireless technology.
French start-up Oledcomm demonstrated the technology at
the Mobile World Congress, the world's biggest mobile fair, in Barcelona. As
soon as a smartphone was placed under an office lamp, it started playing a
video.
The big advantage of Li-Fi, short for "light
fidelity", is its lightning speed.
Laboratory tests have shown theoretical speeds of over
200 Gbps -- fast enough to "download the equivalent of 23 DVDs in one
second", the founder and head of Oledcomm, Suat Topsu, told AFP.
"Li-Fi allows speeds that are 100 times faster than
Wi-Fi" which uses radio waves to transmit data, he added.
The technology uses the frequencies generated by LED
bulbs -- which flicker on and off imperceptibly thousands of times a second --
to beam information through the air, leading it to be dubbed the "digital
equivalent of Morse Code".
It started making its way out of laboratories in 2015 to
be tested in everyday settings in France, a Li-Fi pioneer, such as a museums
and shopping malls. It has also seen test runs in Belgium, Estonia and India.
Dutch medical equipment and lighting group Philips is
reportedly interested in the technology and Apple may integrate it in its next
smartphone, the iPhone7, due out at the end of the year, according to tech
media.
With analysts predicting the number of objects that are
connected to the Internet soaring to 50 million by 2020 and the spectrum for
radio waves used by Wi-Fi in short supply, Li-Fi offers a viable alternative,
according to its promoters.
"We are going to connect our coffee machine, our
washing machine, our tooth brush. But you can't have more than ten objects
connected in Bluetooth or Wi-Fi without interference," said Topsu.
Deepak Solanki, the founder and chief executive of
Estonian firm Velmenni which tested Li-fi in an industrial space last year,
told AFP he expected that "two years down the line the technology can be
commercialised and people can see its use at different levels."
- 'Still laboratory technology' -
Analysts said it was still hard to say if Li-Fi will
become the new Wi-Fi.
"It is still a laboratory technology," said
Frederic Sarrat, an analyst and consultancy firm PwC.
Much will depend on how Wi-Fi evolves in the coming
years, said Gartner chief analyst Jim Tully.
"Wi-Fi has shown a capability to continuously
increase its communication speed with each successive generation of the
technology," he told AFP.
Li-fi has its drawbacks -- it only works if a smartphone
or other device is placed directly in the light and it cannot travel through
walls.
This restricts its use to smaller spaces, but Tully said
this could limit the risk of data theft.
"Unlike Wi-Fi, Li-Fi can potentially be directed and
beamed at a particular user in order to enhance the privacy of
transmissions," he said.
Backers of Li-Fi say it would also be ideal in places
where Wi-Fi is restricted to some areas such as schools and hospitals.
"Li-fi has a place in hospitals because it does not
create interference with medical materials," said Joel Denimal, head of
French lighting manufacturer Coolight.
In supermarkets it could be used to give information
about a product, or in museums about a painting, by using lamps placed nearby.
It could also be useful on aircraft, in underground garages
and any place where lack of Internet connection is an issue.
But Li-Fi also requires that devices be equipped with
additional technology such as a card reader, or dongle, to function. This gives
it a "cost disadvantage", said Tully.
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