[news] Li-Fi

[abillybob]

How Li-Fi could make your internet 100 times faster

 

Looks very interesting, I'm intrigued. But will it really take off baring in mind I don't think this Li-Fi will be backward compatible with Wifi bands and thus I don't think everyone will be too happy that suddenly they need to replace their computers.

[NB9457]

I've been following this myself.

 

Does it work when the lights are off though? How do they handle roaming? Could it work outdoors?

 

Surely if a business were to have such a product, the costs would surely out weigh conventional WiFi and leave a lot of black spots?

[abillybob]

I've been following this myself.

 

Does it work when the lights are off though? How do they handle roaming? Could it work outdoors?

 

Surely if a business were to have such a product, the costs would surely out weigh conventional WiFi and leave a lot of black spots?

 

Nope the lights have to be on as far as I'm aware. Not sure. No it can't work outdoors during the day due to the light from the sun, during the night though I suppose would be a possibility.

 

Exactly... a few things to weigh up really. Personally I don't think it will take off anytime soon but if it does they will have to drastically improve it. They could I suppose use it in underground tunnels to provide hard to reach places with internet access, maybe the sewer system?

[NB9457]

Nope the lights have to be on as far as I'm aware. Not sure. No it can't work outdoors during the day due to the light from the sun, during the night though I suppose would be a possibility.

 

Exactly... a few things to weigh up really. Personally I don't think it will take off anytime soon but if it does they will have to drastically improve it. They could I suppose use it in underground tunnels to provide hard to reach places with internet access, maybe the sewer system?

 

It seems good and it says the units are 'cheap', but has no mention of how many unit's you'd need, I imagine multiple in each room. LEDs have a long life span, but if a few fail I imagine that could cause headaches troubleshooting. Even if it was faster, installing say 50 APs throughout a school sounds much easier than maybe 500 of these bulbs.

 

Just have to wait and see what details they bring out, the diagram shown on the link shows 4 LiFi lamps in one smallish looking room, so from that I'm guessing the range isn't great. So many questions I have about it aha.

 

As for the sewar thing, don't want to be giving the rats internet now do we?!

[LosOjos]

I don't think this Li-Fi will be backward compatible with Wifi bands

 

It definitely won't - it's a completely different technology, it doesn't use radio, it uses light.

 

I don't think everyone will be too happy that suddenly they need to replace their computers.

 

Why would they need to do that? If your computer lacks WiFi, you buy a WiFi dongle, not a new computer!

 

 

Does it work when the lights are off though?

 

No, but it's not as bad as you think. We're talking extremely high speeds here, so although the light would technically be on, it'd be blinking so quickly you wouldn't be able to tell it was on - it'd be receiving power but emitting negligible light.

 

 

 

All that said, there are some pretty major flaws with it as touched on in the article, such as range (anything that blocks light will knock the signal out completely) and interference from other light sources.

 

I can't see it taking off in the way WiFi has unless they find some genius way of addressing these two major drawbacks, but I think it'll see some use in certain business cases, such as super high-speed building to building connections.

[MkII]

How does sending data back upstream work? /how do you incorporate an emitter into your personal device?