WHAT IS LI-FI TECHNOLOGY?

LiFi, the internet at the speed of light

LiFi technology will allow us to connect to the internet using light from lamps, streetlights or LED televisions. In addition to being cheaper, safer and faster than wifi, it does not need a router. All you need to do is point your mobile or tablet towards a light bulb to surf the web.

WHAT IS LIFI TECHNOLOGY?

LiFi (light fidelity) is a bidirectional wireless system that transmits data via LED or infrared light. It was first unveiled in 2011 and, unlike wifi, which uses radio frequency, LiFi technology only needs a light source with a chip to transmit an internet signal through light waves.

This is an extraordinary advance over today's wireless networks. LiFi multiplies the speed and bandwidth of wifi, 3G and 4G. The latter have a limited capacity and become saturated when the number of users surfing increases, causing them to crash, reducing speeds and even interrupting the connection.

With LiFi, however, its band frequency of 200,000 GHz, versus the maximum 5 GHz of the wifi, is 100 times faster and can transmit much more information per second. A 2017 study by the University of Eindhoven obtained a download rate of 42.8 Gbit/s with infrared light with a radius of 2.5 metres, when the best wifi would barely reach 300 Mbit/s.

ROLLING OUT LIFI WORLDWIDE

LiFi technology emerged thanks to the German physicist Harald Haas, a professor and director of the LiFi Research and Development Centre at the University of Edinburgh, and it could reach our homes in just a few years. It is currently being tested with LED luminaires in offices around the world and the aeronautical industry is already working on solutions to integrate it into commercial aircraft.

Airports, hospitals and city streets are other spaces where LiFi technology could become popular. The boom in mobile devices and the growing demand for higher bandwidth systems are expected to drive the development of this social technology in the next decade, as noted in the Global Market for LiFi Technology Analysis and Forecast 2018-2028.

This report estimates that the global market will reach a value of nearly $36 billion in 2028, and that over the next 10 years the compound annual growth rate will rise to 71.2%. The Asia-Pacific region will lead the global growth in LiFi technology up to 2028, overtaking Europe, which remained at the forefront in 2017.