LiFi vs WiFi What Is the Difference?

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The world is very familiar with WiFi technology, but how acquainted are you with the term LiFi’. While WiFi is a technology that is a local-area wireless network-based internet service, LiFi is fully-connected as well as a bidirectional wireless communication technology that is very similar to WiFi in functionality and in many other ways.

What is LiFi?Lifi Blog

Li-Fi is a wireless-optical networking technology that makes use of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to transmit data. Li-Fi is built to use LED bulbs that are similar to those presently being used by many energy-conscious offices and offices. However, Li-Fi bulbs are fitted with chips that imperceptibly modulate the light for optical transmission of data. Just like you can flash a torch Morse code to send a message, LiFi sends binary flashes of light to transmit data. To the naked eye, it looks just like a regular bulb, but in reality, it is flashing thousands of times per second.

what-is-lifi-andwifi
Diagram of the fundamentals of LiFi credit to axrtek.

The early developmental models of Li-Fi were capable of 150-megabits per second (Mbps). Today, some commercial kits that still enable that speed are already available in the market. With different technology and stronger LEDs in the lab, researchers have enabled 10-gigabits per second (Gbps) that is quicker than 801.11ad. Imagine just turning on your lights and downloading a movie in a second.

Why is LiFi faster than WiFi?

Based on the pure frequency of the transmission, light waves are 10,000 times denser than WiFi signals so the potential to pack more in the same space is huge.

A prototype of puelifi's ssystem
PureLiFi are one of the leaders in LiFi technology, here is one of their demonstrations.

Some of the best Li-Fi benefits include:

  • Higher speeds than WiFi
  • 10000-times the frequency radio spectrum
  • More secure as data can’t be altered or accessed without a vivid and clear sight line
  • Prevents piggy-backing
  • Eliminates neighboring network interference
  • Unimpeded by radio interference.
  • It doesn’t create any interference in very sensitive electronics, thus making it ideal for use in environments such as aircraft and hospitals.

Some of the disadvantages of LiFi

  • You need to keep the lights on, alright for the office but not so practical or eco friendly for home use.
  • You need a receiver box or device with LiFi already installed.

Remind me, what is Wi-Fi?

free-wifi-hotspots-banggood
A common myth is that the term WiFi is short for wireless fidelity,’ however, this isn’t the case. WiFi is simply a trademarked couch that means IEEE802.11X.

WiFi works without any physical wired connection between the receiver and sender by making use of radiofrequency technology – a frequency associated with radio-wave propagation and within the electromagnetic spectrum. When a radiofrequency current is supplied to antennas, electromagnetic fields are created thus being able to spread through space.

The keystone of any wireless network is an access point. The main job of access points is to propagate wireless signals that computers can sense and tune’. In order to connect with access points and join wireless networks, devices and computers must be outfitted with a wireless network adapter.

Some major benefits of WiFi technology are:

  • Currently More Cost-Effective.
  • Already supported by devices.
  • Well known and understood by the public.
  • Eliminates wiring and cabling for PC’s.

Why make the change?

When we begin considering smart home and the internet of things LiFi has a huge advantage that there will be no interference from other neighbors or nearby devices. Currently, the drawback is a lack of exposure and supported hardware as it seems a step back to have to connect your computer back to a LiFi receiver. For most of us, regular WiFi is not the bottleneck the actual internet speed is, so a faster connection internally will have little effect on the actual speed.

Wifirouters

As we slowly begin to have more and more smart devices the advantage of interference-free communication will begin to surface, or if internet connection becomes faster until then I’m happy with my WiFi setup.