Physics World October 22, 2019
Researchers at the University of Oxford have shown that LiFi can work in lab demonstrations at speeds of 224 Gbps, illustrating the huge progress since Professor Haas from the University of Edinburgh, introduced LiFi in his 2011 TED talk. In that presentation, Haas demonstrated the benefits of LiFi with an LED light bulb housed in a desk lamp sitting on a small receiver unit. The four fundamental challenges that LiFi addresses are – first it’s efficient, second, LED lights are widely available, third, LiFi offers high capacity (the visible spectrum is 10,000 times wider than the radio spectrum) and finally, it’s secure: light doesn’t travel through walls so you can deliver the data only where you want it. LiFi will be particularly attractive for high-security applications in defence and industry, and high-density residential premises with congested WiFi spectrum for residents, who at the same time want secure transmissions. As LiFi benefits from a low “latency” it is attractive for virtual reality…read more.
Bright prospect LiFi could transform how we communicate. (Courtesy: iStock/BeeBright)