Li-Fi to the Rescue

Anyone who lives in a congested neighborhood or apartment complex has experienced poor wi-fi recption because the channels are so congested. The answer to this might be Li-Fi because it uses light instead of RF to pass data. Furthermore, Li-Fi also allows for 1000x the data density over wi-fi and it makes it a good solution for crowded situations. Once this technology is miniaturized enough I believe it's going to be the network of the future inside homes and offices. I can't wait to try it out.

"Look at the path of LTE and Wi-Fi from dongle, to increased functionality, miniaturization, and lower power before it ended up in a product," Alistair Banham, PureLiFi CEO, said. "This will follow the same path. We’re already developing new techniques to miniaturize and manage the way you collect photons."

The article really didn't talk about any of the cons of this technology, so I'm just not sure. Wouldn't this suffer from the same issues as other IR technologies, such as not being able to pass through walls or objects? If you're using light frequencies instead of radio frequencies, wouldn't walking between rooms cause issues without having boxes in each room of the house?

Perhaps the article could have explained this better, but from what I gather, LiFi would require both a special light plus a special access point in every room of your home. Assuming that's correct, even if the cost comes down to just $10 for both the bulb and AP, you'd still need to wire ethernet to each bulb's AP. Maybe it could make sense for new homes, but I don't picture anyone retrofitting their home or business with LiFi if those are the requirements.

Strangely enough the Mrs and I watched "Office Christmas Party" the other night, and SPOILER ALERT the hacker girl (Olivia Munn) invents some tech that turned light bulbs into wifi... I laughed so hard I coughed up beer at the stupidity of it. And then there is this... while not exactly the same thing, close enough for a stupid movie to rip off.

Back to the real world...I've read about wifi AP's and repeaters that plug into light bulb sockets, but that was just for convenient power and placement. So for this to work I'm assuming like others on here that you would have to replace light bulbs with these special ones with emitters. Seems needlessly complicated.

hope i can still get access when i need to take a dump

Skirge01 said:

you'd still need to wire ethernet to each bulb's AP.

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Maybe they'll use some form of powerline connectivity?

The tech's limited by LoS so no closed doors (and if you're drilling holes why not just put in copper) and outdoors it's very susceptible to rain, snow, fog and dust. The better solutions I've seen combine the high bandwidth laser or coherent light signal with a slower directional WiFi for failover. Honestly since you need clearance between the points on the network it's a VERY niche market since Cat6 usually works just as well and is cheaper. We had one install between a main office and a warehouse across the street and it's been nothing but trouble.

Oh, and since it's less directional than laser it's got the same issues with old token ring networks when it comes to spying. Signal goes everywhere. Even encrypted you don't exactly want your data stream out where anyone can see it.

Plus I'd want a little more data on how bright the invisible light is, since even invisible light can cause eye strain and even damage.

Lol. Transmit data through the use of light. This really only works well if you're trying to set up a network in an open (unobstructed) parking lot, train yard, etc. Does this work in anything other than a studio apartment? Not really, unless you're willing to put up little stations in every single room and there's an area with clear line of sight to everything.

It's a silly concept for residential use and almost devoid of usefulness. You're better off with creating access points on the same ssid and extending your network around a big area and also switching to 5Ghz instead of 2.4.

I worked for a couple years as a Comcast multiple dwelling unit technician, and wifi was the damned bane of my existence. Customer complains that their internet is slow, I plug into it and get full speed, pull out wifi analyzer app on my phone and show them 5000 different wifi networks on every 2.4 ghz channel, tell em to get a 5 ghz router, and they insist its still Comcasts problem and we have to fix it. 5 ghz wifi on modems greatly alleviates this due to less people having it, and the shorter range of it, but Id still much prefer even higher frequencies with shorter range and more wifi repeaters.

sirnephilim said:

Oh, and since it's less directional than laser it's got the same issues with old token ring networks when it comes to spying. Signal goes everywhere. Even encrypted you don't exactly want your data stream out where anyone can see it.

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??? confused. What's your stance on wifi in that case?

plug power into your monitor tv and computer, pair them like with blutooth tada no wire mess.
Take your laptop to a friends house, want to show them something, pair it with the tv in less than 30 seconds.
Same for speakers and many other devices.

serpretetsky said:

??? confused. What's your stance on wifi in that case?

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Try not to use it in high security environments. They're touting security in their ad copy, I was just pointing out that it's not any better.

sirnephilim said:

Try not to use it in high security environments. They're touting security in their ad copy, I was just pointing out that it's not any better.

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Ah yes, that makes more sense.