LiFi has two major advantages over WiFi. Can it really replace WiFi?

Recently, the American company LightPointe announced that it will set up a new company to study LiFi (visible light wireless communication) technology. This has brought LiFi back into people's attention. As wireless communication technologies, what are the advantages and disadvantages of LiFi compared to our common WiFi technology? Will it replace WiFi and become an indispensable technology in our lives in the future?

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LiFi has developed into a real product

So, what is LiFi? LiFi stands for Light Fidelity, which means visible light wireless communication. Some people also call this technology "light fidelity technology". The working principle of LiFi is to use the visible spectrum for data transmission. Visible light is the emission source in the entire information transmission system. The controller is used to control the on and off of the light source, so as to control the information transmission between the terminal receivers.

The LiFi technology was proposed by a physicist named Herald Haas. Since October 2011, Herald Haas's LiFi technology has developed to the third generation. The third generation new product is called "LiFi-X", which has developed from a conceptual theory to a visible product in reality.

The most obvious difference of "LiFi-X" compared to the previous two generations of products is that its size is further reduced; at the same time, the transmission rate of "LiFi-X" is also greatly improved. Currently, both the uplink and downlink rates have reached 40Mbps; the receiver of "LiFi-X" is also more sensitive and can accept indirect light sources, that is, whether it is back-facing or side-facing light sources, it can be effectively received.

LiFi has two major advantages over WiFi

LiFi is better than WiFi mainly in the following two aspects:

• ***, strong security. WiFi transmission mainly uses radio waves, and radio has a frequency that can be cracked. However, LiFi uses visible light to transmit information. The composition of light is complex and has the dual nature of wave and particle. In short, LiFi that uses light for transmission is safer. It can prevent WiFi theft outside the building, and indoor information will not be leaked outdoors.
• Second, it is fast. The world's fastest transmission speed is the speed of light. LiFi uses visible light to transmit information, while WiFi is radio transmission. Therefore, LiFi's transmission speed is faster than WiFi.

LiFi technology is still not mature enough

Although LiFi is safer and faster than WiFi, the current LiFi technology still has various limitations.

• Finally, reverse communication. At present, the biggest limitation of LiFi technology should be reverse communication. Signals can be transmitted from LED bulbs to terminals, but how to ensure that the terminal reflects the signal back to the LED bulb has not been fully solved.
• Second, communication distance. Although LiFi is faster, the transmission distance is not guaranteed. The transmission distance of WiFi is also limited. How to ensure that one set of LiFi equipment can meet the LiFi needs of the whole family is still a problem that scientists urgently need to solve.
• Third, the interference environment. LiFi mainly relies on visible light for data transmission. Although LED lights can modulate light to a range that is invisible to the human eye, if the light is too bright, it will affect the normal transmission of LiFi. When the signal-to-noise ratio (the ratio of normal electronic signals to the additional signals generated by the device) is too small, the transmission of information will be distorted and normal information transmission will be weakened.

If the light source is blocked, data transmission will still be interrupted in the current third-generation LiFi products. LiFi technology is undoubtedly a better data transmission technology than WiFi, but due to various limitations, it may take some time for it to be fully popularized. I believe that in the near future, this data transmission technology will completely change our lives.