Not everything is news on the manufacturers of 5G modems and the improvements of the WiFi standard in terms of advances in telecommunications. There are more and more communication protocols that want to have their place in our hyperconnected world, and one of them has just had its first standard approved after years of testing.
You may have heard of him: Li-Fi. Acronyms for Light fidelity, this mode of communication was in the mind of Nikola Tesla. It has its advantages and disadvantages but promises data transfer speeds that would make us blush what current WiFi networks or 5G connections offer us.
What is LiFi and what is the difference with WiFi
Basically, LiFi is a protocol (and already a standard) with which electronic devices could communicate with each other using light. As? Changed the frequency of this light between 400 and 800 THz. One way to understand this is to imagine a blinking LED light (at a speed too fast for the human eye to detect) and an electronic device understanding those blinks and interpreting them as data.
WiFi networks, on the other hand, work by radio frequency and not by light. Therefore, an essential component of WiFi routers are their antennas, which can be visible or hidden inside the device.
What benefits can LiFi have
What LiFi promises is not little: theoretical speeds of up to 90 Gbps, hundreds of times larger than current WiFi or 5G networks. Lower latency is also promised, and being able to work with the full spectrum of visible light ensures that there is no interference with communications from other devices.
At the component level, you don’t need much either: an LED light source to communicate with. Something that can easily be added to any device, even mobile ones. A small flashing light could consume much less battery than current WiFi or 5G receivers.
What are the limits of LiFi
LiFi is not a technical utopia. Being based on flashing lights, when there is an obstacle such as a wall between the transmitter and the receiver, the communication is already lost (which does not happen with WiFi or 5G networks). It is essential that there is a line of communication in an open space, the transmitter and the receiver must be seen in order to be able to communicate using LiFi. Goodbye connection as soon as you put your mobile in your pocket.
It also spoils communications in open spaces, as sunlight interferes too much with intermittent light sources. A distance of no more than four meters is required, so LiFi can only work inside rooms and with strategically placed devices.
How LiFi connection could be used on iPhone
A mobile with LiFi, aided by an LED light to communicate.
In the future, LiFi could work as an additional connection interface, complementary to WiFi or 5G. It would be particularly useful for sending information between devices such as the iPhone, iPad or Mac: sending large files via AirDrop in seconds, local iPhone backups which can be done in much less time. .
These would be actions that would require placing the devices face to face so that the LED light is visible between them. Something similar could also be done at the video level, with AirPlay, passing a high quality signal without problems. Who knows, it might even help us get rid of those fixed cables that we keep sitting on the desk.
We’re not going to see anything like this on the iPhone anytime soon, and it’s not guaranteed that this technology will be widely implemented. But after many years of talking about it, a standard has finally been approved This is already an important step that will encourage companies (including Apple) to consider taking advantage of.
Imagen | Andy Holmes
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