Explaining Li-Fi

• Light Fidelity or Li-Fi is a technology for wireless communication between devices using light to transmit data and position.
• It is based on visible light communication.
• In its present state only LED lamps can be used for the transmission of visible light.

Components

The main components of this communication system are :

• LED Bulb : A high brightness white LED which acts as a communication source.
• A Silicon photo-detector – It shows a good response to the visible wavelength region and serves as the receiving element.

Working of Li-Fi

• A lamp fitted with an LED with signal processing technology stream data embedded in its beam at ultra-high speed to its photodetector.
• A receiver dongle then converts the tiny changes in amplitude into an electric signal, which is then converted back into a data stream and transmitted to a computer or a mobile device.
• Moreover, as the LED bulbs that are used are a semiconductor, the current and optical output can be modulated at extremely high speeds making it too quick to be perceived with the human eye and hence the communication seems to be seamless just like radio frequency (RF) communication.

Li-Fi vs Wi-Fi

Potential Applications

Hospital: Li-Fi can be used in the places where it is difficult to install the optical fibers like hospitals. Besides providing a higher speed, light waves also have little effect on medical instruments and human bodies.

• Security : In contrast to radio frequency waves used by Wi-Fi, lights cannot penetrate through walls and doors. This makes it more secure and makes it easier to control access to a network.
• Traffic Management : Vehicles could communicate with one another via front and back lights to increase road safety. Also, street lights and traffic signals could also provide information about current road situations.
• Underwater application : Most remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) are controlled by wired connections. The length of their cabling places a hard limit on their operational range, and other potential factors such as the cable’s weight and fragility may be restrictive. Since light travels through water, Li-Fi based communications could offer much greater mobility.
• Industrial automation : Anywhere in industrial areas data has to be transmitted, Li-Fi is capable to replace slip rings, sliding contacts and short cables, such as Industrial Ethernet. Due to the real time capability of Li-Fi (which is often required for automation processes) it is also an alternative to common industrial Wireless LAN standards.

Conclusion

Li-Fi can act as one of the important role under wireless communication system technologies and can help in overcoming some of the constraint in existing technologies