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EY GLOBAL SHARED SERVICE
Li-Fi: Light. Data. Delivered
DENO THANKACHAN 12/6/2015
Li-Fi - Timeline
July 2011 - Prof. Harold Haas coins “LiFi” at TEDGlobal 2011
January 2012 - pureLiFi is founded as VLC Ltd (pureVLC) with seed funding
December 2012 - Second running of seed funding
TSB funded project with Rolls Royce
September 2013 - First launch of Li-1st
TSB funded projevt with Cisco
January 2014 - Rebranding of company to pureLiFi
December 2014 - Completed development of second product: iFlame
November 2015 - Prof. Harold Haas demonstrated at TEDGlobal 2015
December 2015 - Completed development of next product: LiFi-X
Li-Fi: To future in lightning speed
Li-Fi is a disruptive technology which is going to change the current business model. The
entry of LED lighting has already made an impact in the lighting industry, with its lifetime
and durability the factor to consider. This altogether will pave the way for the shift in the
business scenario and
business model. Li-Fi uses
the visible light spectrum to
enable the wireless data
communication instead of
radio frequencies. It
provides high speed wireless
access with higher security;
safety and data- densities
than Wi-Fi which also helps in eliminate unwanted external network intrusion or frequency
disturbances. Energy consumption is another main factor in Li-Fi.
The technology was been in development for a few years. Estonian technology company,
Velmenni, a high-tech hardware start-up was able to use Li-Fi to achieve speed of 1GbPS
inside their environment.
Researchers at the University of Oxford used Li-Fi to achieve bi-directional speeds of 224
Gbps. In short, using a 224Gbps speed would technically allow for 18 movies of 1.5GB each
to be downloaded in a single second.
Light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs transmit data when they are switched on and off so rapidly
in nanoseconds, that the human eye cannot see it. This data is registered by special
equipment, making it possible to provide wireless Internet connectivity at a current
experimental speed up to 10 Gbps, which is estimated to be 250 times faster than
broadband connectivity. The availability of LED light bulbs will drive the future ubiquity of
connectivity even in places where Wi-Fi fails-on an airplane.
Source: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/lifi-internet-breakthrough-224gbps-connection-broadcast-led-bulb-1488204
A potential alternative
The technology is being developed as an alternative to Wi-Fi, and because it uses visible
light spectrum to transmit data, when coupled with a high-speed fibre internet connection,
it is believed that it can offer speeds far greater than those attained by existing Wi-Fi
technology. Li-Fi could provide more secure network than Wi-Fi. Li-Fi has te potential to
provide low-cost wireless network in local areas, provided that light could not pass through
walls.
Harold Haas, German physicist, professor at the University of Edinburgh, has previously
claimed that in the future every LED light bulb could potentially be used as an ultra-fast
alternative to Wi-Fi.
Source: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/lifi-internet-breakthrough-224gbps-connection-broadcast-led-bulb-1488204
"All we need to do is fit a small microchip to every potential illumination device and this
would then combine two basic functionalities: illumination and wireless data
transmission. In the future we will not only have 14 billion light bulbs, we may have 14
billion Li-Fi's deployed worldwide for a cleaner, greener and even a brighter future." -
Prof. Harold Haas
Working principle
Li-Fi devices attempt to transmit not one data stream, but thousands of data streams in
parallel, at higher speeds.
Li-Fi technology is based on the
Visible Light Communication (VLC)
which uses the visible light for data
communication. It uses a source of
illumination which can not only
produce illumination but also send
information using the same light.
Now imagine a torch which we might use to send some sort of a signal, maybe Morse code.
We can do so manually by switching the torch ON and OFF repeatedly.
Now suppose we switch the torch ON and OFF very quickly using a computer system. In this
case, due to the rapidity of the motion of switching between ON and OFF states, the torch
appears to be ON constantly, and additionally, we also cannot “see” the data being
transmitted.
The sending of the data in the above mentioned manner has been made possible by the
widespread use of the LED bulbs. These bulbs can be switched ON and OFF very rapidly thus
permitting us to send the required data via light. The rapid adoption of LED light bulbs has
created a massive opportunity for VLC. The problem of congestion of the radio spectrum
utilized by Wi-Fi and cellular radio systems is also helping to create the market for VLC
Source: TEDGlobal 2015
Future of internet via light bulbs
The days of tungsten light bulb are numbered now with the arrival of LED lighting, which
consume a tenth of the power of incandescent bulbs and have a lifespan of about 30 times
longer. Potential uses of LEDs are not limited to illumination: smart lighting products are
emerging that can offer various additional features, including linking your laptop or
smartphone to the internet. Li-Fi is to be a potential alternative to WI-Fi.
Wireless communication with visible light is, in fact, not a new idea. Everyone knows about
using smoke signals on a desert island to try to capture attention. In the same way that
interrupting (modulating) a plume of smoke can break it into parts that form an SOS
message in Morse code, so VLC Li-Fi - rapidly modulates the intensity of a light to encode
data as binary zeros and ones. But this doesn’t mean that Li-Fi transceivers will flicker; the
modulation will be too fast for the eye to see.
Internet of Things – A lot easier with Li-Fi
'Internet of Things', is a technology that’s taking the world by storm. Light Fidelity or Li-Fi, is
an exciting breakthrough in VLC systems and the future of wireless Internet access. We
could be seeing very cheap powered internet Li-Fi everywhere. This could lead to IoT,
becoming a reality, a siyuation where all electronic devices communicate with each other.
Eg:- Your mobile phone communicating with your fridge.
The application of IoT focuses not only on monitoring signals but on mining the information
captured by these devices over the time. Just imagine if the devices are the source of the
data, then taken as a whole, the data can be big. In the various applications, the IoT will be
having an impact of $1.9 Trillion by 2020. Technology is accelerating every day in giving the
developers new ways to increase the product value for the customers, thereby sales. Now
the focus is on the how a phone helps a customer to deal with his daily life and inclusion fun
elements in the phone.
Growth in the number of connected devices is accelerating, driven by a growing range of
applications and business models, supported by falling modem costs. Machine-to-Machine
(M2M) is expected to show strong growth, driven by new use cases, e.g., in cars, machines
and utility metering. The connected home is driving connectivity in consumer electronics –
mostly over Wi-Fi or Ethernet. In total, 26 billion connected devices are expected by 2020,
of which almost 15 billion will be phones, tablets, laptops and PCs. The total excludes
passive sensors and radio frequency ID tags.
Another example is home alarm systems where sensors on doors and windows, as well as
motion detectors and fire alarms, all connect to an alarm center through a cellular gateway.
New developments and 5G capabilities are expected to extend the range of applications
Source: ERICSSON MOBILITY REPORT, JUNE 2015
IoT is a network of “things” connected through sensors with each other, which enables to
collect and exchange data for analytical purpose. For example, Sensors in your car will
directly alert you though your smartphone that your tyres are too worn or have low
pressure. Li-Fi is an attractive solution to making this a reality. Gartner says that IoT product
and service suppliers will generate incremental revenue exceeding $300 billion in 2020. IDC
forecast that the worldwide market for IoT solutions will grow from $1.9 trillion in 2013 to
$7.1 trillion in 2020.
In the future, shops will transmit advertisements to your phone as you pass by and bus
schedule changes will be transmitted to a screen at the stop. Smarter home appliances that
talk machine-to-machine (M2M) are already being extensively researched, where LED lights
on electronics function as Li-Fi access points. In fact, the Li-Fi industry is set to become a $6
billion (€4.4 billion) industry by 2018.
Several companies are already offering products for visible light communications. The Li-1st
from PureLiFi, based in Edinburgh, offers a simple plug-and-play solution for secure wireless
point-to-point internet access with a capacity of 11.5 Mbps - comparable to first generation
Wi-Fi.
Wi-Fi vs. Li-Fi
There are about 4 billion Wi-Fi devices in use globally. The growing demand for wireless data is
placing huge pressure on existing Wi-Fi technology, which uses the radio and microwave
frequency spectrum.
Radio frequency (RF) spectrum is heavily used and regulated, and there just isn’t enough
additional space to satisfy the growth in demand. So Li-Fi has the potential to replace radio
and microwave frequency Wi-Fi. Li-Fi is well confined inside the walls of a room. This
confinement might seem to be a limitation for Li-Fi, but it offers the key advantage that it is
very secure.
An array of light sources in the ceiling could send different signals to different users. The
transmitter power can be localised, more efficiently used and won’t interfere with adjacent
Li-Fi sources. Indeed the lack of RF interference is another advantage over Wi-Fi. A further
advantage of Li-Fi is that it can use existing power lines as LED lighting so no new
infrastructure is needed.
PARAMETERS Li-Fi Wi-Fi
Speed for data
transfer Faster transfer speed (>1 Gbps) Data Transfer speed (150
Mbps)
Range Visible light spectrum has
10,000 time broad
spectrum in comparison to RF
RF spectrum range is less
than visible light
spectrum.
Medium Used Light as a carrier Uses Radio spectrum
Network Topology Point to point Point to point
Cost Cheaper than Wi-Fi; uses light.
Expensive in comparison
to Li-Fi because its uses
RF
Operating
Frequency
Hundreds of Tera Hz
(THz) 2.4 GHz
Applications of Li-Fi
Benefits
Source: http://yourstory.com/2015/05/velmenni/
Challenges
• The lights flicker
• You cannot dim the lights
• VLC is uni-directional (downlink or broadcast only)
• There will be interference from sunlight
• You must have line-of-sight: Line of sight is a definite advantage because the signal
will be stronger
• You need special LEDs: Specialist LEDs with ideal characteristics for VLC would be
great. However, solid state LED lighting is currently being sold based on its
performance for illumination purposes (colour temperature, efficacy, CRI, lifetime,
etc). Communications performance is not even a secondary consideration, so it is
wholly unrealistic to expect the lighting industry to factor this into designs at this
stage.
Conclusion
As radio waves used by Wi-Fi get more congested and the demand for faster and more
efficient wireless communication escalates, the future is bright for Li-Fi as a reliable,
affordable and more secure solution. Since Li-Fi requires line-of-sight, when set up outdoors
the apparatus would need to deal with ever changing conditions. Indoors, one would not be
able to shift the receiving device. A major challenge facing Li-Fi is how the receiving device
will transmit back to the transmitter. LIFI can be used in places where it is difficult to lay
optical fibres. At traffic signals, Li-Fi can be used to communicate with LED lights of cars,
thus controlling traffic. In aircraft, the overhead lights can be used for data transmission. It
can be used in petroleum or chemical plants.
Reference
http://purelifi.com/
http://www.inc.com/justin-bariso/meet-li-fi-the-breakthrough-technology-thats-100-times-faster-
than-wi-fi.html
http://www.sciencealert.com/li-fi-tested-in-the-real-world-for-the-first-time-is-100-times-faster-
than-wi-fi
http://www.wipro.com/blogs/light-fidelity-the-bright-future-of-5g-visible-light-communication-
systems/
Scope and Challenges in Light Fidelity (Li-Fi) Technology in Wireless Data Communication;
International Journal of Innovative Research in Advanced Engineering (IJIRAE) ISSN: 2349-
2163 Issue 6, Volume 2 (June 2015)
Li-Fi (Light Fidelity)-The future technology In Wireless communication
International Journal of Applied Engineering Research, ISSN 0973-4562 Vol.7 No.11 (2012)
© Research India Publications; http://www.ripublication.com/ijaer.htm
Li-Fi Technology:
Polshetwar Poonam V. et al, / (IJCSIT) International Journal of Computer Science and
Information Technologies, Vol. 5 (6) , 2014, 8031-8032
Li-fi- Light Fidelity Technology - A Review
International Journal of Emerging Research in Management &Technology ISSN: 2278-9359
(Volume-3, Issue-10)
http://www.tweaktown.com/news/35816/4-billion-wi-fi-enabled-devices-in-use-around-
the-world-today/index.html
http://www.fiercewireless.com/europe/story/uk-university-researches-li-fi
http://www.forbes.com/sites/gilpress/2014/08/22/internet-of-things-by-the-numbers-
market-estimates-and-forecasts/
TEDGlobal 2015
ERICSSON MOBILITY REPORT, JUNE 2015
http://www.ericsson.com/res/docs/2015/ericsson-mobility-report-june-2015.pdf
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