A SEMINAR REPORT ON

Li-Fi TECHNOLOGY

Submitted for partial fulfillment of the requirement for award

the degree of
BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY
In
ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING
By
ABHAY MAURYA
Roll No.15405

Under the guidance of

Prof. Dr.RABINDRA KUMAR SINGH
Department of electronics engineering
Kamla Nehru Institute Of Technology,sultanpur

Affiliated to
Dr. A.P.J. ABDUL KALAM TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY
LUCKNOW
 Preface

I have made this report file on the topic Li-Fi Technology. I have
tried my best to elucidate all the relevant detail to the topic to be
included in the report. While in the beginning. I have tride to give a
general view about this topic.
My efforts and wholehearted co-corporation of each and everyone
has ended on a successful note .I express my sincere gratitude to
Prof. Rabindra Kumar Singh who assisted me throughtout the
preparation of this topic. I thank him for providing me the
reinforcement,confidence and the most importantly the track for the
topic whenever I needed it.

ABHAY MAURYA

(Roll No. 15405)

 DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING
KAMLA NEHRU INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
SULTANPUR

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that Mr. Abhay Maurya has carrid out the seminar report
work entitled “ Li-Fi TECHNOLOGY” is an original work carried out by
for partial Fulfillment of the requirement for award the degree of Bechelor
of Technology in Electronics Engineering form Kamla Nehru Institute of
Technology, Sultanpur Under our supervision during the academic session
2017-2018 .

SEMINAR GUIDE & HOD

Prof. Rabindra Kumar Singh

( Department of Electronics Engineering)
 OBSTRACT

We know that spectrum is the rare coin for communication

engineers. Nowadays, with the rapid growth of wireless communications the
problem of using spectrum efficiently has become more important. Many
solutions have been proposed to solve this issue; one of these solutions is
the usage of visible light frequencies to send data. These frequencies are
already free and unused. Light fidelity (Li-Fi) is a new short range optical
wireless communication technology which provides the connectivity within
a local network, by using Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs) to transmit data
depending on light illumination properties.
We shall explain in this report the basic foundation of this new technology
and its important applications. Then we discuss its challenges and
implemented projects all over the world.
 Contents

Introduction………………………………………………………....1
Chapter One: Problems of Wireless Communication Systems Error!
Bookmark not defined.
1-1 What is the Problem? .................................................................. 7
1-2 Visible Light Communication..................................................... 9
Chapter Two: Li-Fi Definition, Working Principle and
Advantages ......................................................................................... 11
2-1 What is Li-Fi? ........................................................................... 11
2-2 History ....................................................................................... 12
2-3 D-Light Project.......................................................................... 13
2-4 Working Principle ..................................................................... 14
2-5 Advantages ................................................................................ 15
Chapter Three: Applications of Li-FiError! Bookmark not defined.
3-1 Life with Li-Fi ........................................................................... 17
3-2 Applications of Li-Fi ................................................................. 18
Chapter Four: Systems of Li-Fi and Challenges............................... 23
4-1 Implemented Systems ............................................................... 23
4-2 Li-Fi versus Wi-Fi ..................................................................... 28
4-3 Challenges for Li-Fi .................................................................. 30
Conclusion .......................................................................................... 31
Acknowledgement ............................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
 Introduction
Transfer data from one place to another is one of the most
important day-to-day activities. The current wireless networks that
connect us to the internet are very slow when multiple devices are
connected. As the number of devices that access the internet increases,
the fixed bandwidth available makes it more and more difficult to
enjoy high data rates and connect to a secure network. Nowadays,
Everyone is interested in using his mobile phone, laptop to
communicate with other people through Wireless-Fidelity (Wi-Fi)
systems, and this technology, Wi-Fi, is widely used in all public areas
like home, cafes, hotels and airports by people, also the time usage of
wireless systems is increasing exponentially every year; but the
capacity is going down, due to the limitation of Radio Frequency (RF)
resources, so we are going to suffer from severe problem.
In order to overcome this problem in the future, Professor
Harald Haas, an expert in optical wireless communications, proposes
in 2011 a brilliant and applicable solution by using light to transmit
data, he demonstrated how an Light-Emitting Diodes (LED) bulb
equipped with signal processing technology could stream a high-
definition video to a computer and he showed that one watt LED light
bulb would be enough to provide net connectivity to four computers.
We use the visible light as a signal carrier instead of traditional
RF carrier as in Wi-Fi. Professor Harald Haas coined the term "Light-
Fidelity" and set up a private company, called “Pure Visible Light
Communication”, to exploit that technology.
In this seminar, we will talk about its features, applications
and advantages, some practical projects that have been implemented;
and we will show that it can be seriously the future of communication
technology.

Chapter One: Problems of Wireless

Communication Systems

In this Chapter, we will talk about severe problem in communication

system which called “Spectrum Crunch”, and the suggested solutions
to solve it. One of the solutions is the use of visible light;
we will describe it briefly and talk about Visible Light
Communication (VLC) systems and their components.

1-1 What is the Problem?

Despite continuous improvements in wireless communication
systems, e.g. 3G, 4G, etc.., a coming crisis is expected due to the lack
of sufficient Radio Frequency (RF) resources, this limitation in
bandwidth can‟t support the growth in demand for high data rates and
the large numbers of communication systems, as shown in Figure 1,
within the bandwidths between 300 kHz and 4 GHz. That‟s known as
“Spectrum Crunch”.
Although, spectrum congestion decreases when we use high
frequencies to transfer data, but this not a practice solution, because
this part of spectrum requires complex equipment and causes high cost
systems.
 Figure 1: Multiple communication systems cause Spectrum Crunch.

So how can we solve this problem?

Actually, there are numbers of technologies that provide realistic and
applicable solutions to this issue. One of them is the “Cognitive
Radio”. It is a new sort of wireless communication with a transceiver
architecture that can intelligently detect which communication
channels are in use and which are not, and instantly move into empty
channels to use them to transmit data. Another solution is the
transmission of data using visible light illumination which use very
high frequency. In general, this technology known as Visible Light
Communication
(VLC).
There are also many brilliant and efficient solutions, in this seminar
we will focus on Light Fidelity (Li-Fi) technology, which is based on
VLC.
1-2 Visible Light Communication

Definition
VLC is an optical communication technology that use visible light
rays, these rays locate between [400-800] THz, as optical carrier for
data transmission by illumination. It uses fast pulses of light, which
cannot be detected by the human eye, to transmit data. [4] [5] It
includes any use of the visible light portion of the electromagnetic
spectrum to transmit information. The VLC standardization process is
conducted within IEEE wireless personal area networks working
group (802.15). [6]
One of VLC‟s features is providing wide bandwidth as illustrated in
Figure 2. We can obviously see that usage the optical portion of
spectrum guarantees about 10,000 times greater bandwidth compares
to the usage of the RF frequencies. [7]

Figure 2: Location of visible light and RF frequencies at

electromagnetic spectrum.
Components
As we see in the previous paragraph, VLC is a communication system
which consists of a transmitter, a receiver and a communication
channel. The main components of VLC systems are:

• High brightness Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs) or any light

sources, which acts as transmitter.
• A silicon photodiode has the roll of a detector and it shows a
good response to visible wavelength. Communication
channel is air or fibre optics.
Usually, we add to these components some necessary circuits like a
driving circuit and a receiving circuit. The driving circuit consists of
a control circuit and output stage to modify the data and make it ready
to be sent and the receiving circuit consists of a filter to select the
required band, amplification stage to provide the required Signal to
Noise ratio in order to demodulate the signal. We show a block
diagram of VLC system in Figure 3. [8]

Figure 3: Block diagram of the VLC system.

 Chapter Two: Li-Fi Definition,
Working Principle and Advantages

In this chapter, we will talk about Li-Fi technology in detail

and show its history, describe the first project; which called D-Light.
In this field, we explain the working principle for this technology and
its advantages.

2-1 What is Li-Fi?

Li-Fi is a new technology for short range wireless communication
system; which is suitable for data transmission via LEDs by
illumination. It uses the visible light, a part of the electromagnetic
spectrum that is still not greatly utilized, instead of RF part.
Professor Harald Haas, the original founder of Li-Fi technology, in his
Technology Entertainment Design
(TED) global talk on Li-Fi says: “At the heart of this technology is a
new generation of high brightness LEDs”, he also explains “Very
simply, if the LED is on, you transmit a digital 1, if it‟s off you
transmit a 0, they can be switched on and off very quickly, which gives
nice opportunities for transmitted data.” It is possible to encode data
in the light by varying the rate at which the LEDs flicker on and off to
give different strings of 1s and 0s. Figure 4 illustrates the idea of data
transmission using light. The LED intensity is modulated so rapidly
that the human eye cannot notice, so the output appears constant; also
more sophisticated techniques could dramatically increase Li-Fi data
rates such as using array of LEDs, where each LED transmits a
different data stream, to provide parallel data transmission. Other
ideas are using mixtures of red, green and blue LEDs to alter the light
frequency encoding a different data channel. In the next paragraphs,
we will talk about the history of the technology, its working principle
and its various advantages.

Figure 4: Data transmission via LEDs

2-2 History
The term was first used by Professor Harald Haas from University of
Edinburgh, United Kingdom, in his TED global talk in 2011. Li-Fi
idea rates as “one of 50 best inventions of 2011” on TED world site
on the internet.

The first project which explains the idea of Li-Fi was The D-Light
project. It was funded from January 2010 to January 2012 at
Edinburgh's Institute for Digital Communications by Professor Haas;
we will explain this project in the next paragraph.
Here we show the history of Li-Fi:
 2011, Haas promoted this technology in TED global talk and helped
start a company to market it.
 October 2011, companies and industry groups formed the Li-Fi
consortium, to promote high-speed optical wireless systems and to
overcome the limited amount of radio-based wireless spectrum
available by exploiting a completely different part of the
electromagnetic spectrum.
 2012, VLC technology exhibited by using Li-Fi Consortium.
 October 2013, Chinese manufacturers work on Li-Fi development
kits.
 April 2014, the Russian company Stins Coman announced the
development of a Li-Fi wireless local network called BeamCaster.
Their current module transfers data at 1.25 Gbps.

2-3 D-Light Project

D-Light, which means “data through illumination”, is the invention of
Professor Harald Hass. He says that his invention can produce data
rates faster than 10 Mbps, which is speedier than average broadband
connection. He visualizes a future where data for laptops,
smartphones, and tablets is transmitted through the light in a room, but
Haas says that this version is limited by existing LEDs and by the
usage of LEDs as transmitters and detectors at the same time.
However, he has created a better LED, which provides a data rate
close to 4 Gbps operating on just 5 milliwatt of optical output power
and using high bandwidth photodiodes at the receiver. Haas says that
we can send data with a distance of 10 meters at up to 1.1 Gbps with
a simple lens, and soon they will increase that up to 15 Gbps. The
802.11ad Wi-Fi standard for the 60 GHz radio band reaches just under
7 Gbps, so Li-Fi would more than double of that rate.
D-Light system uses Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
(OFDM) techniques, which allows us to vary the intensity of the LEDs
output at a very fast rate, invisible to the human eye; for the eye, the
bulb would simply be on and providing light. The signal can be picked
up by simple receivers. He says: “It should be so cheap that it‟s
everywhere. Using the visible light spectrum, which comes for free”.
2-4 Working Principle
Li-Fi technology is implemented using white LED light bulbs used for
illumination by applying a constant current. However, by fast
variations of the current, the light output can be made to vary at
extremely high speeds. If the LED is on, it transmits a digital
1otherwise it transmits a digital 0. The LEDs can be switched on and
off quickly to transmit data that can‟t be detected by a human eye.
So what we need at all for sending data are some LEDs and a controller
that cods data into those LEDs and for receiving data, we need an
Image Sensor, Photodiode which is used as a detector, these
components are shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5: The main component of Li-Fi system: LEDs, Photodiode

and Image sensor.

The LED bulb will hold a micro-chip that will do the job of processing
the data. The light intensity can be manipulated to send data by tiny
changes in amplitude.
Figure 6 shows the working principle of Li-Fi system, for data
transmission; it can be done by single LED or multi LED. On the
receiver side there is a photo detector, which convert this light into
electric signals and it will give the electric signals to the device
connected to it. Voltage regulator and level shifter circuits are used on
both sides to convert or maintain a voltage level between transmitter
and receiver.
 Figure 6: The working principle of the Li-Fi.

2-5 Advantages
Li-Fi is ideal for high density wireless data coverage in confined area
and for reducing radio interference issues. Its features include
benefits to the capacity, energy efficiency, safety and security of a
wireless system; now, we will talk briefly about each one of these
advantages.

I. Efficiency
The efficiency of each radio station is just 5%due to the fact that most
of the energy is used for the cooling system in base of the radio station.
Li-Fi is highly efficient because LED consumes less energy. It is
effective in terms of low cost, low required energy and for various
Environments. In this topic there are some main and important points:
 Low cost: Requires fewer components than radio technology,
due to the cheap price of the LEDs and Digital components
compared with the microwave equipment.
 Energy: LED illumination is already efficient and the data
transmission does not requires, additional power because most
energy dissipation in LEDs requires little amount of energy.
 Environment: RF transmission and propagation in water is
extremely difficult but Li-Fi works well in this environment.
II. Capacity
Any lighting devices like car lights, ceiling lights, street lamps, etc.
are used as a hotspot. It means that any light spread internet using VLC
which helps us to lower cost architecture for a hotspot. The most
important issues here are Bandwidth, Data density and speed.
 Bandwidth: The visible light spectrum more abundant 10,000
times compared with the RF spectrum..
 Data density: Li-Fi can achieve about 1000 times the data
density of Wi-Fi because visible light can be well contained in a
tight illumination area, whereas RF tends to spread out and cause
interference.
 High speed, Very high data rates can be achieved as high as
500mbps or 30GB per minute due to the low interference, high
device bandwidths and high intensity optical output.
III. Safety
Light is all around us – it is a natural part of life – and as such there
are no health concerns associated with its use as a communications
medium. It never gives any side effects on any living thing like radio
waves and other communication waves which can dangerously
interfere with electronic circuits and have effects on birds and humans.

IV. Security
“If you can’t see the light, you can’t access the data!”
Because of the signal will not travel through walls, it is difficult to
eavesdrop on Li-Fi signals. You can also see where the data is going,
so there is no need for additional security such as pairing for RF
interconnections like
Bluetooth.
Chapter Three: Applications of Li-Fi

The applications of Li-Fi are unlimited and promising for the future of
communications on the planet. In this Chapter we will talk about some
of its applications.

3-1 Life with Li-Fi

The dramatic growth in the usage of LEDs for lighting provides the
opportunity to incorporate Li-Fi technology into a plethora of LED
environments, for instance any lighting devices like car lights, ceiling
lights and street lamps are used as a hotspot which helps us to lower
cost architecture for a hotspot.
This technology is particularly suitable for many popular internet
applications; you can download movies, games and music in just a few
minutes with the help of Li-Fi.
Figure 7 shows the environment with the Li-Fi technology where light
bulbs are used as a data communication medium to PC, Laptop and
Tablet as it all have photo detector connected to it as receiver.
 Figure 7: Environment with Li-Fi.

3-2 Applications of Li-Fi

Due to its advantages, Li-Fi has a lot of Life applications. Here we
will talk about some important applications of it.

a. Underwater Communications
Using RF signals is impractical due to strong signal absorption in
water. Li-Fi provides a solution for shortrange communications.
Submarines could use their headlamps to communicate with each
other, process data autonomously and send their findings periodically
back to the surface in Underwater Remotely Operated Vehicles
(ROV). Another important issue is that Li-Fi can even work
underwater where Wi-Fi fails completely, thereby it‟s open for
military operations.
Figure 8 shows water vehicles which use light to communicate with
each other and transfer data between them.
 Figure 8: Optical Underwater Communications system.

b. Traffic Management
Li-Fi can help in managing the traffic in a better manner and the
accident numbers can be decreased. Traffic lights can communicate to
the car and with each other to manage the traffic in the street.
Traffic light can play the role of the sender of the data to provide
information to the car on the status of the road or about the situation
of other cars as shown in Figure 9. Also cars can communicate with
each other and prevent accidents by exchanging information. For
example, LED car lights can alert drivers when other vehicles are too
close.

Figure 9: Vehicle Visible Light Communications.

c. Airways
We have to switch off mobiles in aircrafts to prevent overlapping of
mobile phone signals with navigation and control signals used by
aircraft. Li-Fi can be safely used on planes because it doesn't interfere
with RF. Since it Data is present where light is present, we can use
the lights above the seats in the plane as hotspot.

d. Medical Applications
One of the most important features of Li-Fi is that it could be used in
hospitals and medical settings that require the lack of RF signals
which affect the medical equipment. For example, OTs (Operation
theatres) do not allow using Wi-Fi due to radiation concerns because
usage of Wi-Fi blocks the signals for monitoring equipment‟s. So, it
may be dangerous to the patient's health.

e. Blind Indoor Navigation System

Indoor navigation is convenient for everyone, and it is especially
indispensable for the visually impaired. We proposed such a
navigation system for the visually impaired as shown in Figure 10.
LED lights emit visible light with location data and an embedded
system or smartphone with a visible light receiver which receives the
data. The embedded system or smartphone calculates the optimal path
to a designation and speaks to the visually impaired through a
headphone.
 Figure 10: Indoor Navigation system for Blind people.

f. In Sensitive Areas or in Hazardous Environments

Li-Fi provides a safe communication in environments such as mines
and petrochemical plants, because it doesn‟t cause electromagnetic
interference which appears in RF communications. Li-Fi can also be
used in petroleum or chemical plants where other frequencies could
be hazardous.
For example, power plants like nuclear power plants require grid
integrity and monitoring of the station temperature that need fast,
inter-connected data systems. Wi-Fi and many other radiation types
are bad for sensitive areas surrounding the power plants. Li-Fi could
offer safe, abundant connectivity for all areas of these sensitive
locations.
Moreover this technology also enables us to control plants and their
growth without direct presence.
g. Disaster Management
Li-Fi can be used as a powerful means of communication at times of
disaster such as earthquake or hurricanes, for example places like
subway stations and tunnels which are common dead zones for most
emergency communications, don‟t pose obstruction for Li-Fi, so it
can be used there, as emergency communication
 Chapter Four: Systems of Li-Fi and
Challenges

In this chapter we will talk about some projects that depend on Li-Fi
technology, Comparison between Li-Fi and other wireless technology
and Challenges of Li-fi technology.

4-1 Implemented Systems

There is a number of implemented systems and projects which uses
Li-Fi technology and provides reliable and new applications and uses
for this technology. Some of these are:

I. pureLiFi™ Company
PureLiFi, the home of Li-Fi, is recognised as the leader in the field –
the usage of the visible light spectrum instead of radio frequencies to
enable wireless data communication. PureLiFi provides high-speed
wireless access that offers substantially greater security, safety and
data densities than Wi-Fi along with inherent properties that eliminate
unwanted external network intrusion. In addition, the integration of
illumination and data services generates a measurable reduction in
both infrastructure complexity and energy consumption.
The management Team of this company say: “At pureLiFi, we aim to
address and optimally exploit the opportunities presented by this
disruptive technology in conjunction with our Li-Fi ecosystem
partners.” Some Products of this company:
a. Li-1st
The Li-1st provides the first major opportunity for customers to
rapidly develop and test VLC applications for cost-effective, high-
speed data communication solutions that utilize commercial LED
infrastructures. In Figure 11 we show the working principle diagram
of this project.

Figure 11: Li-1st working diagram.

The product offers full duplex communication with a capacity of
5Mbps in both the downlink and uplink over a range of up to three
metres, while simultaneously providing ample desk space
illumination. The distance achieved by the system depends only on
the strength of the light source, i.e., the LED light. Li-1st offers a
simple plug-and-play solution for secure wireless point-to-point
Internet access with a wide range of LED luminaires working
seamlessly with large 600×600 panels, as well as T5 replacement
LED tubes or downlighters. Actually, the Li-1st is a largely LED
luminaire agnostic, providing a diverse tool for deploying and
exploiting the shifting, services based, business model of the
lighting industry. The system has been available on limited release
since January 2014.
b. Li-Flame
The Li-Flame is the next generation of the world‟s first high-speed
wireless network solution using VLC. Li-Flame delivers:

• An extensive range of wireless communication applications

including and beyond existing Wi-Fi.
• A cost-effective delivery of light and data via a single
infrastructure.
• More flexible construction environments with the elimination
of communication cabling.
The Li-Flame was publicly demonstrated at Mobile World
Congress in Barcelona on 2 – 5 March at the Scottish Development
International stand. [15]
The main products for this project are:
 Li-Flame Ceiling Unit (CU)
It has some main advantages which is Data and power via
standard Ethernet port, Simple installation, Multiple access;
and Handover control enables seamless switching between
Access points (APs). [15]
 Li-Flame Desktop Unit (DU):
This device also has some excellent advantages, Connects to
client device via USB, 10Mbps infrared uplink to ceiling unit,
Handover allowing user to move from one AP to the next
without losing the high-speed data connection, Transceiver
swivel head can be adjusted by user to optimise the
connection; and Battery-powered and portable. [15]
II. UP-VLC Project

Ultra-parallel visible light communications or (UP-VLC) project is a

partnership between 6 research groups at 5 institutions. It is led by
Professor M.D. Dawson of the University of Strathclyde and
mentored by Professor P. Blood of Cardiff University. Some of the
relevant technical expertise and background accomplishments
brought by the partners of this project are illustrated in Figure 12.

Figure 12: Some of the relevant technical expertise and background

accomplishments.
In Figure 13: (a) high-fill-factor chequerboard (square grid) GaN
LED/CMOS clusters (Strathclyde/Edinburgh),
(b) 1Gb/s eye diagram from 84μm-diameter GaN micro-pixel LED
(Strathclyde), (c) flexible organic semiconductor grating arrays for
hybrid LEDs (Strathclyde/St. Andrews), (d) multiple channel VLC
link (Oxford), (e) 124Mb/s real time video VLC transmission
demonstration (Edinburgh).
The project Running from October 2012 to September 2016, UP-VLC
is an ambitious EPSRC-funded £4.6 million Programme Grant which
will explore the transformative technology of communications in an
imaginative and foresighted way. The vision is built on the unique
capabilities of gallium nitride (GaN) optoelectronics to combine
optical communications with lighting functions and especially on the
capability to implement new forms of spatial multiplexing, where
individual elements in high-density arrays of GaN based LEDs
provide independent communications channels, but can combine as
displays. The engineers who work on this project say: “We envisage
ultra-high data density - potentially Tb/s/mm2 - arrays of LEDs driven
via CMOS control electronics in novel addressing and encoding
schemes and in compact and versatile forms".
Recently, by integrating CMOS electronics with GaN based micro-
LEDs, they have developed CMOScontrolled color-tunable smart
displays. The color-tunable LED pixels in these displays have a
modulation bandwidth of 100 MHz, thus providing simultaneously a
wavelength-agile source for high-speed visible light communications.
The programmable dynamic images generated from such a micro-
display system are shown below (red „Tetris‟ and green Firework).

Fujitsu Laboratories Working

Fujitsu Laboratories has developed a technology that modulates the
colour of light emitted by LED lights in such a way as to be
undetectable to the human eye, but that can still embed ID data in the
light that is cast on an object.
We will talk about two basic concepts: the first one is Key features of
this technology and the second is Reflectance compensation.
The key feature of this technology is that information could be
embedded using colour modulations. For more clarification, we know
that colour LEDs combine the three lights of red, green, and blue
(RGB) to produce a range of colours. By modulating the intensity of
the light emitted by each of the three component colours along the
time axis, ID data can be embedded in the light cast onto an object,
even with very small variations. Data for one ID is attached to each
individual LED light. Figure 13 shows transmit and receive data with
colour modulation.
 Figure 13: Colour modulation is used to express and receive data.
When light is cast onto a surface, some of it will be absorbed and some
reflected, depending on the reflectivity of that surface. The signal
encoded in the respective RGB wavelengths will wind up being
weakened by that partial absorption, and since this technology uses an
image captured by a camera to measure the reflectivity and
compensate accordingly, information-capturing accuracy has been
improved, this issue is called reflectance compensation. Figure 14
show that reflectance compensation improves accuracy in
demodulation process.

Figure 14: Reflectance compensation improves accuracy.

4-2 Li-Fi versus Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi is the popular name for the wireless Ethernet 802.11b standard
for Wire line local area networks (WLANs). It is the name of a popular
wireless networking technology that uses radio waves to provide
wireless high-speed Internet and network connections. This
technology works with no physical wired connection between sender
and receiver by using RF, a frequency within the electromagnetic
spectrum associated with radio wave propagation. When an RF
current is supplied to an antenna, an electromagnetic field is created
that then is able to propagate through space.
Li-Fi is a term of one used to describe visible light communication
technology applied to high speed wireless communication. It acquired
this name due to the similarity to Wi-Fi, only using light instead of
radio. Wi-Fi is great for general wireless coverage within buildings,
and li-fi is ideal for high density wireless data coverage in confined
area and for relieving radio interference issues, so the two
technologies can be considered complimentary. Li-Fi provides better
bandwidth, efficiency, availability and security than Wi-Fi and has
already achieved blisteringly high speed compare with Wi-Fi. It is
low-cost technology because of nature of LEDs and lighting units and
there are many opportunities to exploit this medium. Table 1 shows a
comparison between LiFi and Wi-Fi.

Table 1: comparison between Li-Fi and Wi-Fi

Techno- Bandwidth Speed Rang Security Power Cost
logy Expansion availa
ble

Wi-Fi Limited 150 medium Good Low mediu

Mbps (medium) m

Li-Fi Exceptional >10 Low Excellent High Low

Gbps (High)
4-3 Challenges for Li-Fi
Apart from many advantages over Li-Fi, this technology is facing
some problems such as Li-Fi requires line of sight (LOS) and
receiving device would not be shift in indoors. A major challenge is
how the receiving device will transmit data back to transmitter.
Another important issue is interference from external light sources
like sun light, normal bulbs; opaque materials in the path of
transmission will cause interruption in the communication. Another
disadvantage is that Li-Fi doesn‟t work in the dark or light can‟t pass
through objects, so if the receiver is inadvertently blocked in any way,
then the signal will immediately cut out. And the signal is
easily blocked by somebody simply walking in front of the LED
source.
 Conclusion

The possibilities are numerous and can be explored further because

the concept of Li-Fi is currently attracting a lot of eye-balls because it
offers a genuine and very efficient alternative to radio based wireless.
It has a good chance to replace the traditional Wi-Fi because as an ever
increasing population is using wireless internet, the airwaves are
becoming increasingly clogged, making it more and more difficult to
get a reliable, high-speed signal. In the future, data for laptops, smart
phones and tablets can be transmitted through light in the room by
using Li- Fi. Researchers are developing micron sized LED which are
able to flicker on and off around 1000 times quicker than larger LED.
If this technology can be put into practical use, every bulb can be used
as a WiFi hotspot to transmit wireless data and we will proceed toward
the cleaner, greener, safer and brighter future. This concept promises
to solve issues such as the shortage of radio-frequency bandwidth and
boot out the disadvantages of Wi-Fi. Li-Fi is the upcoming and on
growing technology acting as competent for various other developing
and already invented technologies. Hence the future applications of
the Li-Fi can be predicted and extended to different platforms and
various walks of human life.
 References
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