Light-Fidelity Technology

CHAPTER-1
INTRODUCTION
Light-Fidelity is a VLC, visible light communication technology, developed by
the team of scientists including professor Haas at the University of Edinburg and deals
with transfer of data through illumination by taking fibre out of optics by sending data
through a LED light bulb that varies in the intensity faster than a human eye can follow.
Dr Haas amazed people by streaming HD video from a standard LED lamp, at TED
Global in July 2011 and thereby coined the term Light-Fidelity. Li-Fi is now part of visible
light communication (VLC) PAN IEEE 802.15.7 standard. It can be very easily explained
as, if the LED is ON, you are transmitting the data means you transmit a digital 1 ; and if
the LED is OFF you transmit a digital 0,or null, or simply no data transfer happens. As
one can switch them on and off very frequently one can transmit data easily because the
LEDs intensity is modulated so rapidly that human eye cannot notice, so the output in
form of light appears constant and hence offering permanent connectivity. More
sophistication in the transmission techniques can further increase the data rates through
VLC. Till now it was implemented through white LED bulbs only but teams at the
University of Oxford and the University of Edinburgh are focusing on parallel data
transmission by using multiple LEDs or array of LEDs, where each LED transmits a
different stream of data. Mixtures of red, blue, green LEDs are also used by some groups
to encode different data channels by altering the light frequencies.
In simple terms we can consider it to be a light based Wi-Fi which has achieved
blistering high speed in the labs at Heinrich Hertz institute in Berlin, Germany of around
500 megabytes per second using a standard white-light LED. So quiet obviously,
modems would be replaced by transceiver fitted LED lamps which can serve both in
purposes of lightening the room as well as transmitting the data.
Light Fidelity could be classified as nm wave communication. Light Fidelity
uses light emitting diodes (LEDs) for high speed wireless communication, and speeds of
over 3 Gb/s from a single micro-light emitting diode (LED) have been demonstrated
using optimised direct current optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing
(DCO-OFDM) modulation. Given that there is a widespread deployment of LED
lighting in homes, offices and streetlights because of the energy-efficiency of LEDs,
there is an added benefit for LiFi cellular deployment in that it can build on existing
lighting infrastructures.

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Moreover, the cell sizes can be reduced further compared with mm-wave
communication leading to the concept of LiFi attocells. LiFi attocells are an additional
network layer within the existing heterogeneous wireless networks, and they have zero
interference from, and add zero interference to, the radio frequency (RF) counterparts
such as fem attocell networks. A LiFi attocell network uses the lighting system to
provide fully networked (multiuser access and handover) wireless connectivity.
Due to the increasing demand for wireless data communication, the available radio
spectrum below 10 GHz (cmwave communication) has become insufficient. The wireless
communication industry has responded to this challenge by considering the radio
spectrum above 10 GHz (mm-wave communication). However, the higher frequencies, f,
mean that the path loss, L, increases according to the Friis free space equation (L ∝ f2 ).
In addition, blockages and shadowing in terrestrial communication are more difficult to
overcome at higher frequencies. As a consequence, systems must be designed to enhance
the probability of line-of-sight (LoS), typically by using beamforming techniques and by
using very small cells (about 50 m in radius). The need for small cells is not an issue
from a system capacity perspective.

Fig.1.LiFi Environment

1.1 Harald Haas and His Work

As it is stated, professor Haas has meanwhile showed that the spectrum has got
enough capacity hold data and is yet has 10,000 times more vailability as an

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infrastructure, globally. There lies a great to potential in this technology to change
everything that we used for accessing the data today over internet, or streaming videos,
receiving mails etc. Simply if you are receiving the light means you are connected and
if you block it off you are simply offline. The data could be received in familiar forms of
waves like visible light, infrared or ultraviolet and thus the future possibilities are many.

Fig.1.1. Physicist Harald Haas

1.2 Genesis of Li-Fi

At TED global demonstration by Haas, where he achieved 10 mbps transfer rate
increasing it further to 123 mbps after a month, he successfully demonstrated it by
blocking the light source to block the video content received by the projector. Depleting
bandwidths and faster data rates are major factors leading to further exploration of this
utilitarian technique.

CHAPTER-2
LITERATURE SURVEY

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It was July,2011 , Dr. Harald Hass ,Professor , mobile communication ,University of
Edinburgh, publicly demonstrated Light fidelity for the first time, a method of Visible light
communication (VLC) technology[1]. Further Researchers at the Heinrich Hertz institute in
Berlin, Germany have reached data rates of over 500 MBPS using a standard white light
LED[2]. Dr. Herald Hass also has setup a spin-off firm to sell a VLC transmitter. Even
more sophisticated and advance techniques are undergoing development at the University
of oxford and the University of Edinburgh[3]. Teams from University of oxford and
University of Edinburgh are focusing on parallel data transmission using arrays of LEDs,
where each LED transmits a different data stream while other groups are mixtures of red,
green and blue LEDs to alter the light’s frequency, with each frequency encoding a data
channel.
Today researchers are working for its feasibility and designing the hardware
equipment required for making the technology robust and usable. Li-FI- technology has
higher potential, it is very much possible to transmit the data via light by changing the
flicker rate that provide different strings of 1 and 0, and its intensity is modulated so
quickly that the human eyes cannot notice. There are around 19 billion light emits
worldwide. Which in turns may be replaced by LED, i.e. potential source of transmitting
data? “At the heart of this technology is a new generation of high brightness (LED) light
emitting diodes,” says Herald Hass, from the University of Edinburg, U.K[4]. Very simply,
if the LED is on, you transmit a digital 1 if it’s off, you transmit a 0, “They can be switched
on and off very quickly, which gives nice opportunities for connectivity and transfer the
data very quickly, efficiently and accurate without any external hindrances.
Radio Spectrum is congested but the demand for wireless data double each
year .Everything, it seems want to use wireless data but the capacity is drying up.

2.1 Issues regarding Radio Spectrum

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Fig.2.1 Issues of radio spectrum

 Capacity
 Radio waves
 Cost and Expensive
 Less Bandwidth compared to other spectrum
 Insufficient spectrum for increasing data
 Efficiency

 Millions of base stations consume huge amount of energy for

 Transmitting the radio waves
 To cool the base station cabins

 5% Efficiency
 Availability

 Available within the range of base stations

 Limited availability
 Unavailable in aircrafts
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 Security
 Less secure(passes through the walls)

2.2 Why only VLC are used?

Fig.2.2 Electromagnetic spectrum

 IR waves are harmful for our eyes hence can’t be used.

 Gamma rays are radioactive and are dangerous.

 UV rays are harmful for our skin and cannot be used for long duration.

 X-rays also has similar health issues.

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CHAPTER 3
Light-Fidelity Technology
The inconvenience in existing method is that, Wifi system provides,
1. High radiated radio waves is used for data communication between two devices.
2. Secured data transmission is not available here, even though, wps key encryption
can be a provided, it can also be hacked in many ways.
3. It also provides damage to your health as its radio wave transmission.
4. Interference of signals is also a major concern.
The Light-Fidelity will overcome these disadvantages
1. No interference on radio frequency signals as this communication totally
depends on light.
2. It is based on a simple technique of illumination cum communication.
3. Moreover data speed of this LIFI is extremely fast when compared to other
means of communication.
4. Since the communication is based on visible light which is the most used part
in electromagnetic spectrum for communication.
5. As, data transmitted through light so health problems will takes place .The
algorithm used is image compression and decompression algorithm.

Principle of Li-Fi
Heart of Li-Fi technology is high brightness LED’s. Light emitting diodes can be
switched on and off faster since operating speed of LED’s is less than 1 μs, than
the human eye can detect, causing the light source to be appear continuously.
This invisible on off activity enables a kind of data transmission using binary
codes. Switching on and LED is a logical‘1’, switching it off is a logical ‘0’.It is
possible to encode data in the light by varying the rate at which LED’s flicker on
and off to give different strings of 1s and 0s. Modulation is so fast that human

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eye doesn’t notice. A light sensitive device (photo detector) receives the signal
and converts it back into original data.

3.1 Li-Fi versus VLC

VLC uses LEDs to transmit data wirelessly by using intensity
modulation (IM). At the receiver the signal is detected by a photodiode
(PD) and by using the principle of direct detection (DD). VLC has been
conceived as a point-to-point data communication technique –
essentially as a cable replacement. This standard, however, is currently
being revised to include LiFi. LiFi in contrast describes a complete
wireless networking system. This includes bi-directional multiuser
communication, i.e. point-to-multipoint and multipoint-to-point
communication. LiFi also involves multiple access points forming a
wireless network of very small optical attocells with seamless
handover. This means that LiFi enables full user mobility, and therefore
forms a new layer within the existing heterogeneous wireless networks.
The fact that LEDs are natural beamformers enables local containment
of LiFi signals, and because of the blockage of the signals by opaque
walls, CCI can effectively be managed and physical layer security can
be enhanced.

3.2 Comparison between Li-Fi and Wi-Fi

Li-Fi as discussed is a term used to describe visible light communication
technology is applied to high speed wireless communication. It acquired this name due to
the similarity to WI-FI, only using light instead of radio. WI-FI is great for general
wireless coverage within buildings and LI-FI is ideal for high density wireless data
coverage in confined area and for relieving radio interference issues, so the two
technologies can be considered complimentary.

3.3 Modulation Techniques for Li-Fi

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In this section, digital modulation techniques generally used for LiFi are summarised.
In principle, LiFi also relies on electromagnetic radiation for information transmission.
Moreover, due to the use of visible light for wireless communication, LiFi also provides a
number of unique and specific modulation formats.
3.3.1 Single-Carrier Modulation (SCM)
Widely used SCM schemes for LiFi include on-off keying (OOK), pulse position
modulation (PPM) and pulse amplitude modulation (PAM). OOK is one of the well
known and simple modulation schemes, and it provides a good trade-off between system
performance and implementation complexity. By its very nature that OOK transmits data
by sequentially turning on and off the LED, it can inherently provide dimming
support.OOK dimming can be achieved by: i) refining the ON/OFF levels; and ii)
applying symbol compensation.

3.3.2 Multi-Carrier Modulation(MCM)

As the required data rate increases in LiFi networks, SCM schemes such as OOK,
PPM and PAM starts to suffer from unwanted effects, such as non-linear signal distortion
at the LED front-end and inter symbol interference caused by the frequency selectivity in
dispersive optical wireless channels. Therefore, for high-speed optical wireless
communication, efforts are drawn to multi-carrier modulation (MCM). Compared with
SCM, MCM is more bandwidth-efficient but less energy-efficient.

3.3.3 LiFi-Specific Modulation(LCM)

LiFi transmitters are generally designed not only for wireless communication but also
for illumination, which can be realized either by using blue LEDs with yellow
phosphorus coating or by colour mixing through coloured LEDs. Luminairities equipped
with multicoloured LEDs can provide further possibilities for signal modulation and
detection in LiFi systems . Color shift keying (CSK) , where signals are encoded into
colour intensities emitted by red, green and blue (RGB) LEDs. In CSK, incoming bits are
mapped on to the instantaneous chromaticities of the coloured LEDs while maintaining a
constant average perceived colour.

3.4 How Light-Fidelity is different?

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Li-Fi technology is based on LEDs for the transfer of data. The transfer of the data
can be with the help of all kinds of light, no matter the part of the spectrum that they
belong. That is, the light can belong to the invisible, ultraviolet or the visible partof the
spectrum. Also, the speed of the internet is incredibly high and you can download
movies, games, music etc in just a few minutes with the help of this technology.Also, the
technology removes limitations that have been put on the user by the Wi-Fi. You no more
need to be in a region that is Wi-Fi enabled to have access to the internet. You can simply
stand under any form of light and surf the internet as the connection is made in case of
any light presence. There cannot be anything better than this technology.

3.5 Flowchart of Light-Fidelity

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Fig.3.5 Data flow Diagram of Li-Fi

3.5.1 Transmitter part

In transmitter part the image is said to be transmitted by transmitting an image
from pc via data modulation unit and through led array. Image can be converted to digital

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Light-Fidelity Technology
signals of 0s and 1s in data modulation unit and provides series of pulses such that image
can be converted into digital signals of binary bits. Image gets selected from series of
stored images and is then selected and transmitted successfully. Once the image is
transmitted it reaches receiver side through visible light communication scheme. The goal
of transmitter part is to transmit image.

Fig.3.5.1. data modulated and given to leds.

3.5.2 Receiver part

Fig 3.5.2.Demodulation and decoding of original image

The goal of receiving part is to receive the image that is transmitted from the transmitted
successfully.

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Fig.3.5.3 Hardware Implementation

CHAPTER-4
METHODOLOGY

Works of Light-Fidelity

 On one end all the data on the internet will be streamed to a lamp.

 Lamp driver when the led is turned on the microchip converts the digital data
in form of light.

 A light sensitive device (photo detector) receives the signal and converts it back
into original data. This method of using rapid pulses of light to transmit
information wirelessly is technically referred as Visible Light Communication.

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Fig.4. .Data Transmission using LI-FI

It is implemented by using a light bulb at the downlink transmitter. Normally the

light bulb glows at a constant current supply however fast and subtle variations in
current can be made to produce the optical outputs since it just uses the light, hence can
be easily applied in aircrafts or hospitals or any such area where radio frequency
communication is often problematic. The operation procedure is very simple-, if the
LED is on you transmit a digital 1, if it is off you transmit a 0. The LED can be switched
on and off very quickly providing nice opportunities to transmit data. Hence all that is
required id some LED and a controller that code data into those LEDs flicker depending
upon the data we want to encode. The more LEDs in your lamp, the more data it can
process. To further get an clear idea of what is said above let us consider a IR remote
which sends data stream at rate of 10000-20000 bps. Now replace the IR LED with a
light box containing a large LED array which is capable of sending thousands of such
streams at very fast rate.

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LEDs are found in traffic and street lights, car brake lights, remote control units
and countless other applications. So visible light communication not only solves the
problem related to lack of spectrum space but also enable novel application because this
spectrum is unused and not regulated thus can be used for communication at very high
speeds. This method of using rapid pulses of light to transmit information wirelessly
technically referred to as visible light communication (VLC) has a potential to compete
with Wi-Fi and hence inspired the characterization of Li-Fi.

Challenges of Li-Fi
 Light can't pass through objects.
 Interferences from external light sources like sun light, normal bulbs, and opaque
Materials in the path of transmission will cause interruption in the communication.
 Li-Fi requires line of sight.
 High installation cost of the VLC systems.

 A major challenge facing Li-Fi is how the receiving device will transmit back to
transmitter.

Advantages of Li-Fi
 Li- Fi uses light rather than radio frequency signals so are intolerant to disturbances.
 High speed connectivity of the rate of 500mbps.
 VLC could be used safely in aircraft without affecting airlines signals.
 Integrated into medical devices and in hospitals as this technology doesn’t deal with
radio waves, so it can easily be used in all such places where
 Bluetooth, infrared, Wi-Fi and internet are broadly in use.
 Under water in sea Wi-Fi does not work at all but light can be used and hence
undersea explorations are good to go now with much ease.

Disadvantages of Li-Fi
 Works better with fluorescent light and LEDs but very low efficiency

With bulbs.Presence of light is essential.

 High installation cost.

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 Light can pass through object.

4.1 Applications on Li-Fi

1. Traffic Lights: Traffic lights can communicate to the car and with each other. Cars
have LED-based headlights, LED-based cack lights, and cars can communicate with
each other and prevent accidents in by exchanging information.

Fig.4.1.1 Traffic lights

2. Health Technologies: For no longer time now medical technology would lag behind
the rest of the wireless world. Till now operating rooms did not allowed Wi-Fi over
radiation concerns and there was also a whole lack of dedicated spectrum. Also if Wi-
Fi is implemented in many hospitals, interference from cell phones and computers
can block signals from monitoring equipment. Thus Li-Fi solves both problems:
lights are not only allowed in operating rooms, but tend to be the most intended
fixtures in the room. And, as mentioned by Haas in his TED Talk, Li-Fi has 10,000
times the spectrum of Wi-Fi, so we can’t delegate red light to priority medical data.

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 Light-Fidelity Technology

Fig.4.1.2 Hospitals (in few medical equipments)

3. Airlines: Airline Wi-Fi wants captive audience to pay for the "service" of dial up on the
plane. And also they are very expensive. Passengers will soon be offered a "high-speed
like" connection on some airlines. Li-Fi could easily introduce that sort of speed to each
passengers reading light. It would be interruption free to and from other wireless signals on
the board. VLC could be used safely in aircraft .

Fig.4.1.3 Airline

4.Intrinsically Safe Environment :Visible Light is more safe than RF, hence it can be used
in places where RF can't be used such as petrochemical plants. Wi-Fi and many other
radiation or radio waves are bad for sensitive areas like those of power plants especially the

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 Light-Fidelity Technology
atomic power plants. Nuclear power plants need fast, Li-Fi (Light Fidelity): The Future
Technology in Wireless Communication 1691 interconnected data systems to monitor things
like demand, grid integrity and core temperature. Proper monitoring can save huge benefits in
terms of energy and economy obviously. Li-Fi could offer safe, abundant connectivity for all
areas of these sensitive locations. This would be cost effective as well as would improve upon
the current implementations solutions.

Fig.4.1.4 Safe environment

5. Under Sea Working: Li-Fi can even wok underwater were Wi-Fi fails completely,
thereby throwing open endless opportunities for military/navigation operation .
Underwater Rovers, also called toys of treasure seekers, operate from long cables that
supply their power and allow them to receive signals from their pilots above. ROVs work
efficiently until unless they got stuck somewhere or if the search area is huge. If made
wireless and replaced with light say from a submerged, high-powered lamp then they would
be free to explore more.They could also communicate with each other via headlamps,
process intermediate data autonomously and periodically refer back to the surface, all the
while obtaining their next batch of orders from the source. Li-Fi Wireless Communication is
high speed, as high as 500mbps or 30GB per minute.

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Fig.4.1.5 On ocean Beds

6. Street Lamps (As free Access Points) : There are millions of street lamps

deployed. around the world. Each of these street lamps could be a free access point.

Fig.4.1.6 Street lamps

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CONCLUSION
Possibilities for future utilization are abundant. Every light bulb can be converted
into Li-Fi signal receptor to transfer data and we could proceed toward the cleaner, safer,
greener and brighter future.As we know that the airways are getting clogged day by day
Li-Fi can offer a genuine and very efficient alternative. Li-Fi is enabled by advanced
digital transmission technologies. Optical cell networks based on Li-Fi are the link
between future energy efficient illumination and cellular communications. They can also
harness unregulated, unused and vast amount of electromagnetic spectrum and can even
enable ever smaller cells without the need for new infrastructure. The issues of shortage of
radio frequency can be tackled easily with only limitation being that it works in direct line
of sight of light. There are no dead ends to technology and science. Now both light and
radio waves can be used simultaneously to transfer data and signals.

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REFERENCES

[1] Harald Haas and Liang Yin, IEEE, Yunlu Wang, and Cheng Chen,march 15, 2016.
[2] R. Mahendran PG Scholar, Embedded System Technology Li-Fi Technology 2016.
[3] Anurag Sarkar (2015), ‘Li-Fi Technology: Data Transmission through Visible Light’,
International Journal of Advance Research in Computer Science and Management
Studies Volume 3, Issue 6, June 2015.
[4] S. Dimitrov and H. Haas, Principles of LED Light Communications: Towards
Networked Li-Fi. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge Univ. Press, Mar. 2015.
[5] “A Visible Light Communication System for Indoor Application” Amrutha.S, Ansu
Mathew,Rajasree.R, Swarthy Sugathan; Aravind.S, International Journal of
Engineering anD Innovative Technology (IJEIT) Volume 3, Issue 12, June 2014.
[6] D. Tsonev, H. Chun, S. Rajbhandari, J. McKendry, S. Videv, E. Gu, M. Haji, S.
Watson, A.Kelly, G. Faulkner, M. Dawson, H. Haas, and D. O’Brien, “A 3-Gb/s single-
LED OFDM based wireless VLC link using a gallium nitride μLED,” IEEE Photon.
Technol. Lett., vol. 26,no. 7, pp. 637–640, Apr. 2014.
[7] Heinrich Hertz ,K.-I. Ahn and J. K. Kwon, “Color intensity modulation for
multicolored visible light communications,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. Dec. 2012.

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