The New Era of Transmission and Communication Technology : Li-Fi (Light Fidelity) LED & TED Based Approach

Li-Fi is a label for wireless-communication systems using light as a carrier instead of traditional radio Frequencies (1), as in Wi-Fi. Li-Fi has the advantage of being able to be used in sensitive areas such as in Aircraft without causing interference. However, the light waves used cannot penetrate walls. It is typically implemented using white LED light bulbs at the Downlink transmitter. These devices are normally used for illumination only by applying a constant current. However, by fast and subtle variations of the current, the optical output can be made to vary at extremely high speeds. This very property of optical current is used in Li-Fi setup. The operational procedure is very simple-, if the LED is on, you transmit a digital 1, if it's off you transmit a 0. The LEDs can be switched on and off very quickly, which gives nice opportunities for transmitting data. Hence all that is required is some LEDs and a controller that code data into those LEDs.All one has to do is to vary the rate at which the LED's flicker (2) depending upon the data we want to encode. Further enhancements can be made in this method, like using an array of LEDs for parallel data transmission, or using mixtures of red, green and blue LEDs to alter the light's frequency with each frequency encoding a different data Channel. Such advancements promise a theoretical speed of 10 Gbps - meaning one can download a full high-definition film in just 30 seconds.