Wi-Fiis a basic part of our lives at this point, but back in the 90s, it was a groundbreaking concept. Internet without wires? The thought of connecting your computer to the World Wide Web without hooking it up to a modem was surreal until Apple did it with the iBook in 1999 (which in classic Apple fashion it made into a proprietary thing for its devices, called AirPort). By now, though, it’s a concept we’re all familiar with. That doesn’t mean there can’t be more innovation, however. Wi-Fi uses radio waves, but what if there was a better way? Li-Fi was just made into a standard, IEEE 802.11bb — and it harnesses the power of light to give you connectivity.
The newest wireless internet standard has just been released, and despite technically belonging to the same family of standards Wi-Fi lives in, it couldn’t be more different from Wi-Fi. The two entities at the forefront of Li-Fi development today, for-profit company pureLiFi and research institute Fraunhofer HHI, welcomed the release of the standard by issuing a joint press release.
pureLiFi’s concept devices are still bulky, but in the long-term, Li-Fi antennas are small enough to be integrated into smartphone frames, similar to IR blasters
The concept behind Li-Fi is pretty simple, and its powers were actuallyshown off during MWC 2023. Instead of using radio waves to transfer data, Li-Fi uses a different kind of electromagnetic radiation — light — for that task instead. LED lights already turn on and off many times a second by themselves to save energy, and that’s mostly imperceptible by the human eye. Li-Fi would just make them turn on and off in a specific way that a receiver can interpret and thus transfer data with. It works with visible, infrared, and ultraviolet light, so not to worry, you may surf the web with (visible) light switched off. Since light bounces off walls and is thus confined to individual rooms, there is less interference and higher bandwidth, and traffic is harder to intercept from outside. The concept has been around for some time, but there were several challenges to its development and adoption, including the lack of an official standard. This last part has just been fixed with the IEEE 802.11bb standard.
Li-Fi isn’t meant as a replacement to Wi-Fi, but it can thrive in scenarios where Wi-Fi can be a weaker alternative or is outright not an option. Think of places where Wi-Fi’s radio waves can interfere with other things, like hospitals, airplanes, or military bases. Li-Fi can also co-exist with your Wi-Fi network at home, with your devices seamlessly switching between networks depending on which works best in a given scenario — similar to how phones switch between mobile radios and Wi-Fi already. For example, your phone could stay connected to Wi-Fi while it’s in your pocket and then switch to the faster and more interference-free Li-Fi when you hold it in your hand, where it can receive light.
A lamp isn’t coming for your Wi-Fi router anytime soon; it’s more likely to join it. We’ll have to see how this tech evolves and gets adopted down the road now that there’s a proper standard, but we might see a lot more stuff with light-based internet in the next few years.
