Li-Fi Tested For 1st Time In Real World And It’s 100 Times Faster Than Wi-Fi

Crossing the boundaries of research compounds, Li-Fi, the super-fast Wi-Fi alternative, has just been tested in real life. The tests have produced impressive results with 100 times more speeds than the current average Wi-Fi speeds.

Li-Fi is finally moving out of the research labs to the real world environments. This super-fast alternative to Wi-Fi has been tested in a commercial context by Velmenni, an Estonian startup.

This technology uses visible light to transmit high-speed data. Earlier this year, Li-Fi was tested in the labs and it achieved speeds of 224 gigabits per second. Now, in Estonia, in the first time field testing, it has been reported that Li-Fi achieved a data transmission rate of 1GB per second i.e., 100 times the current average Wi-Fi speeds.

Li-Fi dates back to 2011, when it was invented by Harald Haas of the University of Edinburg. Using a single LED, he demonstrated that it could transmit more data than a cellular tower. Now, testing it in the real-life scenarios, Velmenni has designed a smart lighting solution for an industrial environment.

Deepak Solanki, CEO of Velmenni told IBTimes UK: “We are doing a few pilot projects within different industries where we can utilise the VLC (visible light communication) technology.”

Li-Fi allows greater security to the data on local networks as light can not pass through walls and ensures lesser interference due to other devices. Professor Haas, the Li-Fi inventor, has said in the past, that every future LED bulb could be used to beam ultra-fast internet via Li-Fi.

It should be noted that Li-Fi might not completely replace the existing Wi-Fi technology as ripping off all the existing Wi-Fi infrastructure doesn’t seem very economical. However, it can be used to complement Wi-Fi as a parallel network.

Watch the TED talk video of professor Haas, where he explains Li-Fi: