A new and promising technology Li-Fi has come up. Li-Fi can transfer data 100 times faster than Wi-Fi. It was introduced by Professor Harald Haas of Edinburgh University four years ago. The technology is anticipated to be fully usable by 2020.

How Li-Fi works

• Li-Fi uses the visible light spectrum to transmit data.
• It requires the light to modulate its signal in order to create a data stream.
• Standard LED bulbs equipped with a special chip are used with  a special receiver which is capable of interpreting the light signals. This receiver is attached to the receiving device.
• The light modulations are very slight and imperceptible to the human eye
• The light can be turned down low enough to where it would appear to be off, but it will still be able to transmit a signal.

Benefits over Wi-Fi:

• 100 times faster speed
• Much more capacity compared to Wi-Fi. This is because visible light spectrum is 10,000 times bigger than radio waves

Limitations of Li-Fi:

• As visible light can’t travel through walls, a Li-Fi connection can get blocked by something solid placed in front of the transmitting light bulb.
• Li-Fi doesn’t work outside in direct daylight. This is because any light signals would be washed out by the overpowering light coming from the sun.

Well Li-Fi technology looks very promising and can make data transmission faster than one can imagine at this time.