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During a TEDGloabl talk in 2011, a German Professor named Harald Hass introduced the term LiFi to audiences. Professor Hass’s coined term, LiFi, is a partial acronym for “light fidelity” and exists as a wireless communication technology. Light is used to transmit data and lessens the current obstacles WiFi faces with 5G - the fifth-generation wireless cellular technology, which is most mobile networks’ latest, fastest, and most reactive system.
LiFi is accredited as a safer and more reliable technology in comparison to Wi-Fi and cellular. This newer, more secure technology is effectively free of interference, and its light communication network can transmit data over three spectrums: visible light, ultraviolet, and infrared.
WiFi vs. LiFi?
The biggest difference separating WiFi from LiFi is the frequency each technology uses to transmit data. WiFi channels data through radio frequency, whereas LiFi uses light. By using light as a medium, LiFi presents many benefits: there is no electromagnetic interference and a substantially wider bandwidth, therefore computing faster data transmissions. LiFi can solve the challenge of electromagnetic interference from other radio transmissions, such as military or hospital services, as well as expand the current limit of data transfer alongside a certain internet connection; and as a result, creates a more secure, expansive, and efficient data network.
LiFi Security Benefits
Radio frequency waves permit greater access of data as opposed to light transmissions used by LiFi. Due to this, LiFi’s light technology offers greater control over networks for its users. A LiFi channel is moderated and confined to the devices in a given area.
The security benefits surrounding LiFi are as follows:
- LiFi technology has rid any health concerns with wireless technology.
- Seen data rates at a peak of 10 Gbps.
- Access to more devices with of Internet-of-Things.
- 10,000 times more capacity to eliminate the radio frequency spectrum crunch.
- Created a modified wireless infrastructure with more secure data transmission.
LiFi’s most efficient feature is its ability to operate on all visible light. Data can be transmitted with the very LED light bulbs in peoples’ homes, recreational centers, offices, and schools. LiFi’s efficient light technology blossoms the service into a cost-efficient and energy-efficient wireless system. When light is not necessary, the process will lessen to a point of seeming off, but in actuality is still navigating and computing. Efficiency paves way for another obvious benefit of LiFi: accessibility. Wherever emissions of light exist, internet services can exist. As light is usually found in all public places, these transmissions of data at high speeds can be accessible virtually anywhere and everywhere.
The security LiFi provides is most likely its selling benefit. Light is unable to transcend opaque objects - LiFi is limited to its respected space because light cannot permeate walls, making it unable to go out of those bounds. In other words, the network can not be reached by other users in rooms surrounding it.
LiFi’s Drawbacks
The most transparent disadvantage of LiFi is its inability to work without light. In relation to this, its service is restricted by physical means and its surrounding area, providing a limited range of transmission. Although electromagnetic interference is now eliminated, there is still the concern of other light sources that could potentially inhibit signals - most problematically, sunlight and any other outdoor light.
Conclusion
LiFi’s benefits may change the nature and dynamic of wireless communication technology with its users. Its light limitations make for a secure network that can provide effective monitoring and location-based accessibility - which are changes that cannot be made effective with present wireless technologies.
WiFi’s quickest degree of performance is said to be at 1 Gbps, however, LiFi is able to achieve speeds of 224 Gbps - making it not only more secure than WiFi, but significantly quicker as well. The speed increase is also complemented by LiFi’s wider bandwidth and therefore increased capacity at 4 to 8 THz, compared to WiFi’s 2.4 to 5 GHz. A light spectrum, rather than a radio frequency, allows this greater increase.
The infrastructure necessary to make LiFi universal needs to be created and established. Users, vendors, and cybersecurity agencies alike are all looking to LiFi for its ensured security and accompanying benefits. Although wireless technology has a few drawbacks, and its infrastructure proves difficult to make widespread, companies and specialists are still looking to develop LiFi. The global LiFi market is said to reach nearly $76 billion in the next three to four years.
Sources and Further Reading
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