Li fi technology

LI FI TECHNOLOGY

The future is here!!!

History of Networks In the olden days, people formed a network in

order to transmit a piece of data from one place to another.

With the advances in technology a new mode of networking was developed by using the wires as a medium (wired networking).

As time passed the technology increased and we launched satellites into space and thus were in a position to transmit enormous amounts of data across various geographical locations.

wireless networking gained a wide recognition and became the most popular type of all networks .

General network scenario Whether you are using a wireless internet

in a coffee shop or mall, competing for bandwidth at a conference or probably stealing it from the guy next door, you often get frustrated because of the low speeds you face.

Also as more and more devices get connected to the network, clogged airwaves are going to make it.

A German physicist,Harald Haas, has started working on transmission of data using visible light back in 2004.

In the year 2011 he first introduced to the world this new technology,LI FI in the TED talk show.

He envisions a future where data for laptops and other mobile devices is transmitted through a light in a room.

Introduction to LI FI LI FI (light fidelity) is data through

illumination-taking he fiber out of fiber optics by sending data through an LED light bulb that varies in intensity faster than the human eye can notice.

At the heart of this technology is anew generation of high brightness LEDs.

If the LED is on a digital 1 is transmitted, if the LED is off then a digital 0 is transmitted.They can be switched on and off in order to transmit data continuously.

How does LI FI work?

Light has been around for millions of years now and is a very cheap resource unlike radio waves.

LI FI is light fidelity technology. Generally flickering lights are annoying

but when they are made to flicker at a very fast speed which our human eye cannot detect they can be very useful.

This fundamental principle is used in this technology.

The amplitude of the light is varied at very high speed which creates an impression that it is not actually blinking.

Any LED light set if used along with a microchip inside it can used to detect the changes in the light flickering thus helping in converting light into data in its digital form.

This is like sending a Morse code signal using a torch but at a very fast speed.

This very high speed blinking of the light enables the source to transmit data in a rapid stream of binary code that, although invisible to the naked eye, can be detected by a light sensitive device.

Thus every light emitting source can be used as a hub for data transmission.

On one end all the data on the internet will be streamed to a lamp driver.

When the LED is turned on the microchip converts this digital data in the form of light.

On the other end this light is detected by photo sensitive devices.

Next this light is amplified and processed and then fed to the device.

Architecture of LI FI

Present scenario

At present we have as many as 1.5 million radio wave base stations across the globe.

We also have close to 5 billion mobile connections which transmit a data over 600TB.

This penetration of mobile devices into our lives has led to a wide recognition of WIFI technology.

At present the data transmission across the globe is being done using radio wave range of the electromagnetic spectrum.

This results in some drawbacks in the current system.

Issues with radio waves

CAPACITY: The current system makes use of

radio waves. With the increasing number of mobile

connections the availability of the spectrum is getting congested.

Radio waves forms only a small fraction of the entire EM spectrum thus making the problem even worse.

EFFICIENCY: The current system is high on energy

consumption. For every unit of energy consumed the

data transmitted is relatively less. The data speeds in the current system

can only reach up to a few hundreds of megabits per second.

AVAILABILITY: The availability of the radio waves is yet

another major issue now a days. These waves are not much available

during the flight travel. It is not advisable to use these devices I

places like petrol bunks.

SECURITY: These radio waves can easily penetrate

through the walls, thus letting anonymous users to use the network.

This can pose threat if the people with bad intentions start using it.

ECONOMIC: Due the limited availability of the radio

waves the tariff rates are relatively costlier.

There can be many transparency issues during the spectrum allocations paving way for many scams like in the case of 2G.

Benefits of light waves

Capacity: Light is a readily available form of

energy and it covers the major portion of the EM spectrum.

Visible light spectrum is 10000 times more compared to radio wave spectrum.

EFFICIENCY: The data transmission for a unit energy

consumption is high in the case of light waves.

The data transmission can reach upto thousands of gigabits per second thus providing very rich data streaming.

Here in LI FI data bits can be transmitted parallelly thus increasing the efficiency.

Availability: Light is readily available in every part of

the world. This makes it easy for people in

airplanes to work on the internet. There are an estimated 14 billion light

sources on earth and each can be easily converted into a LI FI hotspot.

SECURITY: Unlike radio waves light waves cannot

penetrate through opaque objects thus providing plenty of network privacy.

No other person can share a network unless the owner has permitted them to use it.

The sources can be used as normal lights when there is no use for a hotspot.

ECONOMIC: The tariff rates can be very cheap as

light waves are a cheap resource. There can be transparency in spectrum

allocations due to its cheapness.

The Future is very bright In the next decade this technology can

be made available everywhere. Places where optical fibers are difficult

to reach can be reached using this technology.

Every light source on earth can be a hotspot making technology very much available to every person on earth.

Traffic signals vehicles and many other devices can communicate each other making the world an easy place to live.

Thousands of chemical plants can transmit data without fear as light waves are not hazardous to them.

A car in the near future

Conclusion

LI FI will make are lives more technology driven in the near future.

With its magic of light it can make our world a greener,safer,cleaner and moreover a brighter place to live.

Anil kumar .k

CSE-4/4