EY GLOBAL SHARED SERVICE

Li-Fi: Light. Data. Delivered

DENO THANKACHAN 12/6/2015

Li-Fi - Timeline

July 2011 - Prof. Harold Haas coins “LiFi” at TEDGlobal 2011

January 2012 - pureLiFi is founded as VLC Ltd (pureVLC) with seed funding

December 2012 - Second running of seed funding

TSB funded project with Rolls Royce

September 2013 - First launch of Li-1st

TSB funded projevt with Cisco

January 2014 - Rebranding of company to pureLiFi

December 2014 - Completed development of second product: iFlame

November 2015 - Prof. Harold Haas demonstrated at TEDGlobal 2015

December 2015 - Completed development of next product: LiFi-X

Li-Fi: To future in lightning speed

Li-Fi is a disruptive technology which is going to change the current business model. The

entry of LED lighting has already made an impact in the lighting industry, with its lifetime

and durability the factor to consider. This altogether will pave the way for the shift in the

business scenario and

business model. Li-Fi uses

the visible light spectrum to

enable the wireless data

communication instead of

radio frequencies. It

provides high speed wireless

access with higher security;

safety and data- densities

than Wi-Fi which also helps in eliminate unwanted external network intrusion or frequency

disturbances. Energy consumption is another main factor in Li-Fi.

The technology was been in development for a few years. Estonian technology company,

Velmenni, a high-tech hardware start-up was able to use Li-Fi to achieve speed of 1GbPS

inside their environment.

Researchers at the University of Oxford used Li-Fi to achieve bi-directional speeds of 224

Gbps. In short, using a 224Gbps speed would technically allow for 18 movies of 1.5GB each

to be downloaded in a single second.

Light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs transmit data when they are switched on and off so rapidly

in nanoseconds, that the human eye cannot see it. This data is registered by special

equipment, making it possible to provide wireless Internet connectivity at a current

experimental speed up to 10 Gbps, which is estimated to be 250 times faster than

broadband connectivity. The availability of LED light bulbs will drive the future ubiquity of

connectivity even in places where Wi-Fi fails-on an airplane.

Source: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/lifi-internet-breakthrough-224gbps-connection-broadcast-led-bulb-1488204

A potential alternative

The technology is being developed as an alternative to Wi-Fi, and because it uses visible

light spectrum to transmit data, when coupled with a high-speed fibre internet connection,

it is believed that it can offer speeds far greater than those attained by existing Wi-Fi

technology. Li-Fi could provide more secure network than Wi-Fi. Li-Fi has te potential to

provide low-cost wireless network in local areas, provided that light could not pass through

walls.

Harold Haas, German physicist, professor at the University of Edinburgh, has previously

claimed that in the future every LED light bulb could potentially be used as an ultra-fast

alternative to Wi-Fi.

Source: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/lifi-internet-breakthrough-224gbps-connection-broadcast-led-bulb-1488204

"All we need to do is fit a small microchip to every potential illumination device and this

would then combine two basic functionalities: illumination and wireless data

transmission. In the future we will not only have 14 billion light bulbs, we may have 14

billion Li-Fi's deployed worldwide for a cleaner, greener and even a brighter future." -

Prof. Harold Haas

Working principle

Li-Fi devices attempt to transmit not one data stream, but thousands of data streams in

parallel, at higher speeds.

Li-Fi technology is based on the

Visible Light Communication (VLC)

which uses the visible light for data

communication. It uses a source of

illumination which can not only

produce illumination but also send

information using the same light.

Now imagine a torch which we might use to send some sort of a signal, maybe Morse code.

We can do so manually by switching the torch ON and OFF repeatedly.

Now suppose we switch the torch ON and OFF very quickly using a computer system. In this

case, due to the rapidity of the motion of switching between ON and OFF states, the torch

appears to be ON constantly, and additionally, we also cannot “see” the data being

transmitted.

The sending of the data in the above mentioned manner has been made possible by the

widespread use of the LED bulbs. These bulbs can be switched ON and OFF very rapidly thus

permitting us to send the required data via light. The rapid adoption of LED light bulbs has

created a massive opportunity for VLC. The problem of congestion of the radio spectrum

utilized by Wi-Fi and cellular radio systems is also helping to create the market for VLC

Source: TEDGlobal 2015

Future of internet via light bulbs

The days of tungsten light bulb are numbered now with the arrival of LED lighting, which

consume a tenth of the power of incandescent bulbs and have a lifespan of about 30 times

longer. Potential uses of LEDs are not limited to illumination: smart lighting products are

emerging that can offer various additional features, including linking your laptop or

smartphone to the internet. Li-Fi is to be a potential alternative to WI-Fi.

Wireless communication with visible light is, in fact, not a new idea. Everyone knows about

using smoke signals on a desert island to try to capture attention. In the same way that

interrupting (modulating) a plume of smoke can break it into parts that form an SOS

message in Morse code, so VLC Li-Fi - rapidly modulates the intensity of a light to encode

data as binary zeros and ones. But this doesn’t mean that Li-Fi transceivers will flicker; the

modulation will be too fast for the eye to see.

Internet of Things – A lot easier with Li-Fi

'Internet of Things', is a technology that’s taking the world by storm. Light Fidelity or Li-Fi, is

an exciting breakthrough in VLC systems and the future of wireless Internet access. We

could be seeing very cheap powered internet Li-Fi everywhere. This could lead to IoT,

becoming a reality, a siyuation where all electronic devices communicate with each other.

Eg:- Your mobile phone communicating with your fridge.

The application of IoT focuses not only on monitoring signals but on mining the information

captured by these devices over the time. Just imagine if the devices are the source of the

data, then taken as a whole, the data can be big. In the various applications, the IoT will be

having an impact of $1.9 Trillion by 2020. Technology is accelerating every day in giving the

developers new ways to increase the product value for the customers, thereby sales. Now

the focus is on the how a phone helps a customer to deal with his daily life and inclusion fun

elements in the phone.

Growth in the number of connected devices is accelerating, driven by a growing range of

applications and business models, supported by falling modem costs. Machine-to-Machine

(M2M) is expected to show strong growth, driven by new use cases, e.g., in cars, machines

and utility metering. The connected home is driving connectivity in consumer electronics –

mostly over Wi-Fi or Ethernet. In total, 26 billion connected devices are expected by 2020,

of which almost 15 billion will be phones, tablets, laptops and PCs. The total excludes

passive sensors and radio frequency ID tags.

Another example is home alarm systems where sensors on doors and windows, as well as

motion detectors and fire alarms, all connect to an alarm center through a cellular gateway.

New developments and 5G capabilities are expected to extend the range of applications

Source: ERICSSON MOBILITY REPORT, JUNE 2015

IoT is a network of “things” connected through sensors with each other, which enables to

collect and exchange data for analytical purpose. For example, Sensors in your car will

directly alert you though your smartphone that your tyres are too worn or have low

pressure. Li-Fi is an attractive solution to making this a reality. Gartner says that IoT product

and service suppliers will generate incremental revenue exceeding $300 billion in 2020. IDC

forecast that the worldwide market for IoT solutions will grow from $1.9 trillion in 2013 to

$7.1 trillion in 2020.

In the future, shops will transmit advertisements to your phone as you pass by and bus

schedule changes will be transmitted to a screen at the stop. Smarter home appliances that

talk machine-to-machine (M2M) are already being extensively researched, where LED lights

on electronics function as Li-Fi access points. In fact, the Li-Fi industry is set to become a $6

billion (€4.4 billion) industry by 2018.

Several companies are already offering products for visible light communications. The Li-1st

from PureLiFi, based in Edinburgh, offers a simple plug-and-play solution for secure wireless

point-to-point internet access with a capacity of 11.5 Mbps - comparable to first generation

Wi-Fi.

Wi-Fi vs. Li-Fi

There are about 4 billion Wi-Fi devices in use globally. The growing demand for wireless data is

placing huge pressure on existing Wi-Fi technology, which uses the radio and microwave

frequency spectrum.

Radio frequency (RF) spectrum is heavily used and regulated, and there just isn’t enough

additional space to satisfy the growth in demand. So Li-Fi has the potential to replace radio

and microwave frequency Wi-Fi. Li-Fi is well confined inside the walls of a room. This

confinement might seem to be a limitation for Li-Fi, but it offers the key advantage that it is

very secure.

An array of light sources in the ceiling could send different signals to different users. The

transmitter power can be localised, more efficiently used and won’t interfere with adjacent

Li-Fi sources. Indeed the lack of RF interference is another advantage over Wi-Fi. A further

advantage of Li-Fi is that it can use existing power lines as LED lighting so no new

infrastructure is needed.

PARAMETERS Li-Fi Wi-Fi

Speed for data

transfer Faster transfer speed (>1 Gbps) Data Transfer speed (150

Mbps)

Range Visible light spectrum has

10,000 time broad

spectrum in comparison to RF

RF spectrum range is less

than visible light

spectrum.

Medium Used Light as a carrier Uses Radio spectrum

Network Topology Point to point Point to point

Cost Cheaper than Wi-Fi; uses light.

Expensive in comparison

to Li-Fi because its uses

RF

Operating

Frequency

Hundreds of Tera Hz

(THz) 2.4 GHz

Applications of Li-Fi

Benefits

Source: http://yourstory.com/2015/05/velmenni/

Challenges

• The lights flicker

• You cannot dim the lights

• VLC is uni-directional (downlink or broadcast only)

• There will be interference from sunlight

• You must have line-of-sight: Line of sight is a definite advantage because the signal

will be stronger

• You need special LEDs: Specialist LEDs with ideal characteristics for VLC would be

great. However, solid state LED lighting is currently being sold based on its

performance for illumination purposes (colour temperature, efficacy, CRI, lifetime,

etc). Communications performance is not even a secondary consideration, so it is

wholly unrealistic to expect the lighting industry to factor this into designs at this

stage.

Conclusion

As radio waves used by Wi-Fi get more congested and the demand for faster and more

efficient wireless communication escalates, the future is bright for Li-Fi as a reliable,

affordable and more secure solution. Since Li-Fi requires line-of-sight, when set up outdoors

the apparatus would need to deal with ever changing conditions. Indoors, one would not be

able to shift the receiving device. A major challenge facing Li-Fi is how the receiving device

will transmit back to the transmitter. LIFI can be used in places where it is difficult to lay

optical fibres. At traffic signals, Li-Fi can be used to communicate with LED lights of cars,

thus controlling traffic. In aircraft, the overhead lights can be used for data transmission. It

can be used in petroleum or chemical plants.

Reference

http://purelifi.com/

http://www.inc.com/justin-bariso/meet-li-fi-the-breakthrough-technology-thats-100-times-faster-

than-wi-fi.html

http://www.sciencealert.com/li-fi-tested-in-the-real-world-for-the-first-time-is-100-times-faster-

than-wi-fi

http://www.wipro.com/blogs/light-fidelity-the-bright-future-of-5g-visible-light-communication-

systems/

Scope and Challenges in Light Fidelity (Li-Fi) Technology in Wireless Data Communication;

International Journal of Innovative Research in Advanced Engineering (IJIRAE) ISSN: 2349-

2163 Issue 6, Volume 2 (June 2015)

Li-Fi (Light Fidelity)-The future technology In Wireless communication

International Journal of Applied Engineering Research, ISSN 0973-4562 Vol.7 No.11 (2012)

© Research India Publications; http://www.ripublication.com/ijaer.htm

Li-Fi Technology:

Polshetwar Poonam V. et al, / (IJCSIT) International Journal of Computer Science and

Information Technologies, Vol. 5 (6) , 2014, 8031-8032

Li-fi- Light Fidelity Technology - A Review

International Journal of Emerging Research in Management &Technology ISSN: 2278-9359

(Volume-3, Issue-10)

http://www.tweaktown.com/news/35816/4-billion-wi-fi-enabled-devices-in-use-around-

the-world-today/index.html

http://www.fiercewireless.com/europe/story/uk-university-researches-li-fi

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gilpress/2014/08/22/internet-of-things-by-the-numbers-

market-estimates-and-forecasts/

TEDGlobal 2015

ERICSSON MOBILITY REPORT, JUNE 2015

http://www.ericsson.com/res/docs/2015/ericsson-mobility-report-june-2015.pdf