Benefits And Disadvantages Of LiFi Technology

Benefits And Disadvantages Of LiFi Technology

Advantages

The full advantages of Lifi technology are not completely known at this time, but there are many proposed advantages including, but not limited to: increase in privacy and anonymity online, increased connectivity between friends and family members. 

There is also a proposal that light fidelity will be used to replace the use of flash drives for transferring data between computers in homes which will lead to fewer physical objects being required to transfer data which may reduce costs in addition to increasing ease of use.

LIFI wireless communications were originally thought up by John Macdonald who was trying to solve the problem of his daughter losing her internet connection while downloading songs off Kickass Torrents (a popular illegal music site). Macdonald theorized that using radio waves could increase the range of a wireless signal and built a prototype lifi device. 

After creating a website, lifi received a great deal of press attention and amassed over 750 million views. Macdonald was able to attract investors including Mark Cuban and Peter Thiel, but after raising over $300,000 he moved on from the project due to disagreements with his partners.

In 2009 Luis Corrons created an open-source hardware R&D lab called Pulsio Labs. He also worked on developing antennas for CaaS (Coherent Assisted Subtractive Noise). Around that same time, Thomas Sohmers created Pt2 Pt which is similar in design to goduino , but instead of using an Arduino board, Sohmers used a Raspberry Pi board. David Cittadine created the LIFX company in 2012 which is currently producing lifi devices, but his work goes back to 2007 when he was an intern at Xtrem Keyboards.

In 2013, Thomas Sohmers joined with Bruce Lord to create an FCC-certified Lifi device called “lucibel” which makes use of a CC2530 chip from Texas Instruments.

In April 2014 Ian Macdonald and Richard Pugh patented a new type of Lifi communications system using OFDM (triple play) technology that uses preamble synchronization for increased speed and robustness. 

This has been described as being able to increase effective range from 5km without MultiPath Transmission Control Protocol (MPTCP) to 20km with MPTCP. 

There is also another type of lifi called “lifi” that uses LiFi technology which makes use of LED lights to create a wireless data connection, but this is not the same as LIFI. See next section about disadvantages of Li-Fi.

Disadvantages

There are potential disadvantages to Lifi communications including failure due to multiple users attempting to access the same frequency at the same time, failure due to interference from external elements such as mobile phone towers or microwaves, disruption by jammers, and privacy concerns for certain information sent over these devices. 

Another issue is that poor design may lead to failures in some key industries such as hospitals where it could be life-threatening.

The use of OFDM technology which is sometimes used in Lifi systems is known to suffer from InterCarrier Interference (ICI), and there is no way currently to put a guard interval on the beginning and end of the symbols that will protect against ICI. 

It has also been proposed that increasing the number of samples per OFDM symbol for multiple-antenna devices may reduce susceptibility to ICI, but this would come at the expense of bandwidth efficiency.

One disadvantage specific to LIFX lightbulbs was mentioned by Bruce Lord in an interview with KickStart magazine, “LIFX bulbs are Wi-Fi connected so they need power & data lines.” This means that if want to install them, it may be necessary to install new electrical wiring along with the lightbulbs.

Lifi (“Light Fidelity”) is a form of wireless communication that uses visible light from LED lights as a carrier wave. In contrast, Lifi uses radio waves as carrier waves. As mentioned previously, they are two separate technologies and should not be confused with each other.

According to Wikipedia “LiFi is a generic term for any device which can provide bidirectional communications using visible light between 400 and 800 terahertz (THz). ” 

In December 2011, pure LiFi was demonstrated for the first time at TED Global where Professor Harald Haas showed off his company’s latest invention – an LED that emits information through pulses of light. 

This technology is expected to become part of a smart lighting system in the future that could cut energy consumption in half.

In March 2013, a proof-of-concept system using a USB dongle utilizing a Texas Instruments chip called CC1310 was demonstrated capable of achieving speeds up to 11 Mbit/s when light from an LED lamp was focused through a lens and directed toward the receiver at close range. 

In September 2014, researchers from Samsung reported successful communication between two LED light bulbs with 2.5 meters (100 inches) between them at 54 Mbit/s using eye safety considerations. The same month Nokia announced that they had successfully tested the technology on their radio network and achieved transmission rates similar to current Wi-Fi systems. A disadvantage is that it requires a direct line of sight and cannot penetrate solid objects such as walls.

Conclusion of lifi technology

It is the way of the future. As we move forward and try to improve our society, we decide that there’s something we’re going to do: create a type of technology that will allow us to communicate with each other wirelessly and wirelessly send and receive information without the need for cords or WIFI signals. 

A wireless connection between all devices so you can share whatever you want with the person next to you as if they were there in person. I’m not talking about those cordless phones where both people have to stay within a certain zone; I’m talking about no zone at all, just completely wireless outside of small delay times.

We know eventually everything will become wireless and we’ll eventually be able to work this into everything that we do. It’s called LiFi and it has been around for a while but is just now really coming to the forefront of our society.

The idea is simple: use LED lights, normally used for lighting rooms, and turn them into transmitters for wireless data. This type of technology would give individuals the chance to connect with their surroundings and essentially become part of their surroundings at the same time. 

The catch 22 here comes from an issue no one expected: 

interference from other light sources such as sunlight or overhead lighting. A situation where there are too many light sources that confuse lifi receivers which then disrupts communication between two devices on a network that relays information through the light source itself. 

Since there would be so many different light sources, this makes it nearly impossible to control the type of lighting individuals are around on a day-to-day basis.

The idea is coming into the forefront which means that people are already working on creating better ways to communicate through LED technology without interference from other light sources. 

I am excited to see where this goes and what they come up with but for now, it’s still in its very early stages of development. 

I don’t think there will be any major problems down the road establishing lifi as something new but it will take time before we get there. It’s not perfect, there are definite kinks in the system, but these issues can be worked out rather quickly considering how fast tends to move forward.

The future is almost here, and we should be excited to see what the engineers and scientists of our time can come up with. I am excited to see where this goes and how it affects my life as well as other people’s lives in the coming years. 

In a world always looking for new ways to communicate, it will take someone innovating their way out of a lemons situation to make it perfect for all parties involved. As long as there are not too many delays from putting this technology into place, I say bring on the future!