Li-Fi Is 100x Faster Than Wi-Fi?

H

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
Wow, it's been a few years since we've heard anything about Li-Fi. I didn't realize they were still working on this.

Li-Fi, a super-fast alternative to Wi-Fi, is finally moving from research labs to the real world after an Estonian startup implemented the technology within a commercial context. Velmenni, a recent finalist at the Slush 100 startup competition in Helsinki, revealed that it has begun trialling the technology within offices and industrial environments in Tallinn.
 
So, uhh, can any of you find Estonia on a map?

tumblr_nt5wvpAAiB1tjy56ho1_500.jpg
 
westrock2000 said:
So, uhh, can any of you find Estonia on a map?
Click to expand...
If you split the map in 2 pieces, the Americas and everything else I could point to which half it was on :D Unfortunately the only Estonian I ever knew was Brendon Fraiser in the movie Encino Man :D
 
I don't give a rat's ass about how fast wireless technology has the capability of becoming, I care about how reliable it is considering that Wi-Fi in all its present forms basically sucks major rat's ass. Even in my own apartment, with an 11n dual band router (my own router, not one provided by my ISP, Cox) where I use 5 GHz exclusively because all my neighbors using their own tend to stay on the 2.4 GHz bands, and with me using a somewhat decent Intel 6300 dual band triple antenna setup for proper MIMO operation (the router has 3 antennas as well) I STILL get disconnects on an all-too frequent basis and lackluster connection reliability and throughput and I'm like 12 feet from the router line of sight.

Yes I could just plug in a network cable and be done with it but the power connection is

Wireless sucks, period. It works to some degrees but those degrees are freakin' ice cold in my opinion of having to deal with, set up, and manage wireless networks since 802.11b was in the ratification stages.

I just want the shit to work, 24/7, consistently with no dropouts or problems that have no discernible cause or justification.

As ironic as it might be, yes I did actually get disconnected before I could even finish this post. :p

I wish companies would stop focusing on the speed and instead focus on making the damned technology work better period. Fast is nice, sure, and I do love it when everything is working, unfortunately it doesn't work 24/7 as it should - at least not in my experience.
 
I've been using wireless exclusively at my office for several months and I never have any issues. Wireless can be extremely reliable. I think it's hard to guarantee that reliability though.
 
Tiberian said:
I don't give a rat's ass about how fast wireless technology has the capability of becoming, I care about how reliable it is considering that Wi-Fi in all its present forms basically sucks major rat's ass. Even in my own apartment, with an 11n dual band router (my own router, not one provided by my ISP, Cox) where I use 5 GHz exclusively because all my neighbors using their own tend to stay on the 2.4 GHz bands, and with me using a somewhat decent Intel 6300 dual band triple antenna setup for proper MIMO operation (the router has 3 antennas as well) I STILL get disconnects on an all-too frequent basis and lackluster connection reliability and throughput and I'm like 12 feet from the router line of sight.

Yes I could just plug in a network cable and be done with it but the power connection is

Wireless sucks, period. It works to some degrees but those degrees are freakin' ice cold in my opinion of having to deal with, set up, and manage wireless networks since 802.11b was in the ratification stages.

I just want the shit to work, 24/7, consistently with no dropouts or problems that have no discernible cause or justification.
Click to expand...

Competent hardware makes all the difference. Still using a consumer grade AP? My neighborhood is as congested as any. No problems.

Except for outright speed my WiFi is as reliable as my wired connections. Hell, my neighbors are using my WiFi on their tv and computer on their own vlan and it's both solid and faster than their own WiFi was with the AP on the far side of my house.

Stop wasting money on consumer garbage and your experience will improve
 
AC isn't fast enough? We need 100x faster? We can't even get past gigabit Ethernet and the government and some ISP's want to bring gig+ fiber to the home.
 
Tiberian said:
I don't give a rat's ass about how fast wireless technology has the capability of becoming, I care about how reliable it is considering that Wi-Fi in all its present forms basically sucks major rat's ass. Even in my own apartment, with an 11n dual band router (my own router, not one provided by my ISP, Cox) where I use 5 GHz exclusively because all my neighbors using their own tend to stay on the 2.4 GHz bands, and with me using a somewhat decent Intel 6300 dual band triple antenna setup for proper MIMO operation (the router has 3 antennas as well) I STILL get disconnects on an all-too frequent basis and lackluster connection reliability and throughput and I'm like 12 feet from the router line of sight.

Yes I could just plug in a network cable and be done with it but the power connection is

Wireless sucks, period. It works to some degrees but those degrees are freakin' ice cold in my opinion of having to deal with, set up, and manage wireless networks since 802.11b was in the ratification stages.

I just want the shit to work, 24/7, consistently with no dropouts or problems that have no discernible cause or justification.

As ironic as it might be, yes I did actually get disconnected before I could even finish this post. :p

I wish companies would stop focusing on the speed and instead focus on making the damned technology work better period. Fast is nice, sure, and I do love it when everything is working, unfortunately it doesn't work 24/7 as it should - at least not in my experience.
Click to expand...

Just because your Router has 3 antennas doesn't mean it has 3 individually powered antennas, it also doesn't mean your router can perform MIMO.

I use wireless on everything except my router, main PC and HTPC. Zero problems, zero disconnects and speed has been fine.
 
But but but... it's a MIMO certified router, go figure. :D
 
My question is why should the average consumer care? I have a 100Mb connection (down, and I often pull 130Mb) and my wireless N network can handle that easily.
 
Tiberian said:
I don't give a rat's ass about how fast wireless technology has the capability of becoming, I care about how reliable it is considering that Wi-Fi in all its present forms basically sucks major rat's ass. Even in my own apartment, with an 11n dual band router (my own router, not one provided by my ISP, Cox) where I use 5 GHz exclusively because all my neighbors using their own tend to stay on the 2.4 GHz bands, and with me using a somewhat decent Intel 6300 dual band triple antenna setup for proper MIMO operation (the router has 3 antennas as well) I STILL get disconnects on an all-too frequent basis and lackluster connection reliability and throughput and I'm like 12 feet from the router line of sight.

Yes I could just plug in a network cable and be done with it but the power connection is

Wireless sucks, period. It works to some degrees but those degrees are freakin' ice cold in my opinion of having to deal with, set up, and manage wireless networks since 802.11b was in the ratification stages.

I just want the shit to work, 24/7, consistently with no dropouts or problems that have no discernible cause or justification.

As ironic as it might be, yes I did actually get disconnected before I could even finish this post. :p

I wish companies would stop focusing on the speed and instead focus on making the damned technology work better period. Fast is nice, sure, and I do love it when everything is working, unfortunately it doesn't work 24/7 as it should - at least not in my experience.
Click to expand...

This has been my experience as well.

mnewxcv said:
^--my wireless works fine.
Click to expand...

Good for you.
 
Epic| said:
Competent hardware makes all the difference. Still using a consumer grade AP? My neighborhood is as congested as any. No problems.

Except for outright speed my WiFi is as reliable as my wired connections. Hell, my neighbors are using my WiFi on their tv and computer on their own vlan and it's both solid and faster than their own WiFi was with the AP on the far side of my house.

Stop wasting money on consumer garbage and your experience will improve
Click to expand...

This is the point I was going to make. Consumer grade wireless routers / APs are fucking garbage. They always have been. The shit we have at work is virtually indistinguishable from the wired network. Obviously large file transfers will always be better on wired connections bit we can do our work fine with it, even going so far as doing video conferencing on it in small groups.

[21CW]killerofall;1041992339 said:
My question is why should the average consumer care? I have a 100Mb connection (down, and I often pull 130Mb) and my wireless N network can handle that easily.
Click to expand...

I've got a Gigabit connection. My wireless N router couldn't handle that.
 
[21CW]killerofall;1041992339 said:
My question is why should the average consumer care? I have a 100Mb connection (down, and I often pull 130Mb) and my wireless N network can handle that easily.
Click to expand...

Most wireless N routers can't handle as many devices as newer standard routers can. Also I believe AC has a lot lower latency.
 
Tiberian said:
I don't give a rat's ass about how fast wireless technology has the capability of becoming, I care about how reliable it is considering that Wi-Fi in all its present forms basically sucks major rat's ass. Even in my own apartment, with an 11n dual band router (my own router, not one provided by my ISP, Cox) where I use 5 GHz exclusively because all my neighbors using their own tend to stay on the 2.4 GHz bands, and with me using a somewhat decent Intel 6300 dual band triple antenna setup for proper MIMO operation (the router has 3 antennas as well) I STILL get disconnects on an all-too frequent basis and lackluster connection reliability and throughput and I'm like 12 feet from the router line of sight.

Yes I could just plug in a network cable and be done with it but the power connection is

Wireless sucks, period. It works to some degrees but those degrees are freakin' ice cold in my opinion of having to deal with, set up, and manage wireless networks since 802.11b was in the ratification stages.

I just want the shit to work, 24/7, consistently with no dropouts or problems that have no discernible cause or justification.

As ironic as it might be, yes I did actually get disconnected before I could even finish this post. :p

I wish companies would stop focusing on the speed and instead focus on making the damned technology work better period. Fast is nice, sure, and I do love it when everything is working, unfortunately it doesn't work 24/7 as it should - at least not in my experience.
Click to expand...

So get rid of your super sucky consumer grade trash.

I used to have problems with Wifi.. routers would flake out in a year or less, Wifi was always dropping, slow speed, horrible range, etc.

And now I run a Sophos UTM box (laptop with a dual port Express card NIC) for my router/firewall and a Cisco AP for wireless.

It is just as stable as a hard wired connection and range is at least 10x as far.

Consumer grade crap is just that.. crap.
 
And if I were to say it's not a consumer grade "piece of crap" but instead an enterprise class device would that make any difference with respect to the fact that it works like a piece of crap? Assumptions, they're nasty things, folks. ;)
 
Tiberian said:
And if I were to say it's not a consumer grade "piece of crap" but instead an enterprise class device would that make any difference with respect to the fact that it works like a piece of crap? Assumptions, they're nasty things, folks. ;)
Click to expand...

A so-called "enterprise class" device wouldn't have so many disruptions on a non-crowded channel. If you're having those kinds of problems then it's either defective hardware or defective operator.
 
Dan_D said:
This is the point I was going to make. Consumer grade wireless routers / APs are fucking garbage. They always have been. The shit we have at work is virtually indistinguishable from the wired network. Obviously large file transfers will always be better on wired connections bit we can do our work fine with it, even going so far as doing video conferencing on it in small groups.
Click to expand...

That's been my experience as well. After installing Unifi, Engenius, and a bunch of other so called "enterprise class" systems they all suck. We finally started installing D-Link DAP-2695's in client locations. Best AP's I've ever used. Problem clients that have bandwidth congestion are no longer a problem. I installed one in my house and no longer have drop-outs or speed issues, even on 2.4.

You get what you pay for these days. Go big or deal with slow internet. :D
 
westrock2000 said:
So, uhh, can any of you find Estonia on a map?
Click to expand...

On the Baltic Sea west of Russia, North of Poland, South of Finland. One of the 3 Baltic states comprised of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia. So, yes, I can find it on the map. :p

Geography aside... 100X the speed claimed in the article is a vast over statement. They have achieved 10Gb speeds in labs. While that's 7X the theoretical speed of AC routers and 12X the real world speed of AC, It's nowhere near 100x faster. Can we even do 80GB on wired yet?

The downsides pretty much guarantee that It will never be a replacement for WiFi. It being an optical solution, requires full line of site as it can't penetrate through objects such as walls, furniture and even paper. I can see some implementation in cube farms, but only it is cheaper than a wired connection. Given the line of site requirements and very short range, I don't see it being adopted in homes anytime soon.
 
Ultima99 said:
AC isn't fast enough? We need 100x faster? We can't even get past gigabit Ethernet and the government and some ISP's want to bring gig+ fiber to the home.
Click to expand...

[21CW]killerofall;1041992339 said:
My question is why should the average consumer care? I have a 100Mb connection (down, and I often pull 130Mb) and my wireless N network can handle that easily.
Click to expand...

There are internal reasons for wanting greater performance regardless of the external connection to the internet.

For example streaming content over your internal network.
 
Tiberian said:
I don't give a rat's ass about how fast wireless technology has the capability of becoming, I care about how reliable it is considering that Wi-Fi in all its present forms basically sucks major rat's ass. Even in my own apartment, with an 11n dual band router (my own router, not one provided by my ISP, Cox) where I use 5 GHz exclusively because all my neighbors using their own tend to stay on the 2.4 GHz bands, and with me using a somewhat decent Intel 6300 dual band triple antenna setup for proper MIMO operation (the router has 3 antennas as well) I STILL get disconnects on an all-too frequent basis and lackluster connection reliability and throughput and I'm like 12 feet from the router line of sight.

Yes I could just plug in a network cable and be done with it but the power connection is

Wireless sucks, period. It works to some degrees but those degrees are freakin' ice cold in my opinion of having to deal with, set up, and manage wireless networks since 802.11b was in the ratification stages.

I just want the shit to work, 24/7, consistently with no dropouts or problems that have no discernible cause or justification.

As ironic as it might be, yes I did actually get disconnected before I could even finish this post. :p

I wish companies would stop focusing on the speed and instead focus on making the damned technology work better period. Fast is nice, sure, and I do love it when everything is working, unfortunately it doesn't work 24/7 as it should - at least not in my experience.
Click to expand...

The amount of antenna you see sticking out of them are often a gimmick, and have no relation to type, gain and power. Also, channel choice, many people think they know better and in a congested area use a 40MHz band only to cause more interference for them self and everyone else. 5GHz also by nature has less range than 2.4. I had a friend complaining the same you are, as he had shitty range and speeds, but was running 40MHz channel on 5GHz with a "$300 gamer router". I came over, changed channel width to 20MHz, 2.4GHz and channel to auto, moved the router to a central location from the points of access and cleared as much as I could out of the way with proper antenna orientation. Connection reached to where it did not before and his speeds more than doubled, 7MBs to 21MBs.

If you want anything better, get away from over priced consumer and "gamer" routers.
 
Honestly, I have a wireless N router at home and I haven't really been bothered to replace it. If it's good enough for me I imagine that it's more than enough for the majority of people. Because of that I'm not sure we're going to see people ditch wi-fi on mass for li-fi even if it's 100x better.
 
Quix said:
Honestly, I have a wireless N router at home and I haven't really been bothered to replace it. If it's good enough for me I imagine that it's more than enough for the majority of people. Because of that I'm not sure we're going to see people ditch wi-fi on mass for li-fi even if it's 100x better.
Click to expand...

So long as it can keep up with streaming demands, most people would never know, hell, most people today think they can control/improve their internet speed with a "faster" router. The high throughput speeds are only useful for people who have home servers/streaming boxes. Very few people over all have a actual internet connection that is faster than their WiFi connection, except maybe Google fiber users etc.
 
do you ruckus bros. Atleast my countries education is far superior to americas brainwashing camps called school.
 
This is an interesting idea, but I can think of a couple problems right off the bat:

1. Visible light doesn't go through walls.
2. Unless it's very cloudy, I don't turn the lights on during the day.
 
1080p only requires 3-4MB/s to stream, and that's on the very high end of bitrates. H265 probably doesn't need much more then that for 4K.
 
Didn't know so many people had so many issues with current WiFi technology. I don't have a single bit of issue with mine and I'm even using somewhat "consumer grade trash" as my AP, but I've got a ERL for the routing functions and the "consumer grade trash router" is in wireless ap mode only.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top