A SEMINAR REPORT On

Li-Fi TECHNOLOGY

submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree of

Bachelor of Technology

In

Computer Science and Engineering

By

K. Sanath Surya

Roll No: 17031A0531

Under the esteemed Guidance:

Mr.Ch.Rakesh

Department of Computer Science and Engineering

University College of Engineering Narasaraopet

Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Kakinada

Narasaraopet – 522601
Guntur District, Andhra Pradesh
July 2021
 Department of Computer Science and Engineering
University College of Engineering Narasaraopet
Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Kakinada

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the dissertation entitled “Li-Fi TECHNOLOGY” that is being
submitted by K. Sanath Surya(17031A0531), in partial fulfillment for the award of Bachelor
of Technology in Computer Science and Engineering to the University College of
Engineering Narasaraopet, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Kakinada, is a record
of bonafide work carried out by him at our institution under our guidance and supervision.
This dissertation has not been submitted to any other university/institute for the award of any
degree.

Seminar Guide Head of the Department

Mr.Ch Rakesh Dr. D. Rajya Lakshmi B.E,M.Tech, Ph.D

Department of CSE Professor & HOD,CSE

UCEN JNTUK
 DECLARATION

I, K. Sanath Surya (17031A0531) hereby declare that the work described in this
seminar report, entitled “Li-Fi Technology” which is submitted by me in partial
fulfillment for the award of Bachelor of Technology (B. Tech) in the Department
of Computer Science and Engineering to the University College of Engineering
Narasaraopet, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Kakinada, is work done
by me under the guidance of Mr. Ch. Rakesh, CSE Department. The report has not
been submitted for any Degree/Diploma of any university.

Place: Narasaraopet Signature of the student

Date: 10-07-2021 K. SANATH SURYA

17031A0531

i
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

S.No. Topic Name Page No.

i. List of Figures 1

ii. Abbreviations 2

1. Introduction 3

2. History of Li-Fi 6

3. Genesis of Li-Fi 8

4. Working Principles 10

5. Visible Light Communication 12

5.1 Multiple access using VLC 13

6. Technology in Brief 15

7. Li-Fi Construction 16

7.1 Uplink 17
ii
 7.2 Summary 18

8. Working Models 18

9. Comparision b/w Wi-Fi and Li-Fi 19

10. Applications areas of Li-Fi Technology 22

11. Advantages of Li-Fi 27

12. Challenges of Li-Fi 29

13. Conclusion 30

14. References 31

iii
 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure No. Figure Name Page No.

1. Li-Fi Environment 5

2. Issues Regarding Radio Spectrum 7

3. Block Diagram of Li-Fi 11

4. Multiple Access using VLC 14

5. Li-Fi Bulb 16

6. Use of Li-Fi in Aeroplane 22

7. Use of Li-Fi in Medical Field 23

8. Use of Li-Fi in Traffic Lights 23

9. Li-Fi Hotspot 25

10. Use of VLC under water 26

1
 ABBREVIATIONS

S.No. Term Abbreviation

1. Li-Fi Light based Wi-Fi

2. LED Light Emitting Diode

3. VLC Visible Light Communication

4. EM Electro Magnetic

5. MAC Media Access Control

6. PHY Physical Layer

7. CSK Colour Shift Key

2
 INTRODUCTION

In simple terms, Li-Fi can be thought of as a light-based Wi-Fi. That is, it uses
light instead of radio waves to transmit information. And instead of Wi-Fi modems,
Li-Fi would use transceiver-fitted LED lamps that can light a room as well as transmit
and receive information. Since simple light bulbs are used, there can technically be
any number of access points.

This technology uses a part of the electromagnetic spectrum that is still not
greatly utilized- The Visible Spectrum. Light is in fact very much part of our lives for
millions and millions of years and does not have any major ill effect. Moreover there
is 10,000 times more space available in this spectrum and just counting on the bulbs
in use, it also multiplies to 10,000 times more availability as an infrastructure,
globally. It is possible to encode data in the light by varying the rate at which the
LEDs flicker on and off to give different strings of 1s and 0s. The LED intensity is
modulated so rapidly that human eyes cannot notice, so the output appears constant.

More sophisticated techniques could dramatically increase VLC data rates.

Teams at the University of Oxford and the University of Edinburgh are focusing on
parallel data transmission using arrays of LEDs, where each LED transmits a different
data stream. Other groups are using mixtures of red, green and blue LEDs to alter
the light's frequency, with each frequency encoding a different data channel.

Li-Fi, as it has been dubbed, has already achieved blisteringly high speeds in the
lab. Researchers at the Heinrich Hertz Institute in Berlin, Germany, have reached
data rates of over 500 megabytes per second using a standard white-light LED. Haas
has set up a spin-off firm to sell a consumer VLC transmitter that is due for launch next
year. It is capable of transmitting data at 100 MB/s - faster than most UK broadband
connections.

3
 Li-fi is transmission of data through illumination by taking the fibre out of fiber
optics by sending data through a LED light bulb that varies in intensity faster than the
human eye can follow. Li-Fi is the term some have used to label the fast and cheap
wireless communication system, which is the optical version of Wi-Fi. The term was
first used in this context by Harald Haas in his TED Global talk on Visible Light
Communication. “At the heart of this technology is a new generation of high brightness
light-emitting diodes”, says Harald Haas from the University of Edinburgh, UK.

Simply, if the LED is on, it transmits a digital 1, if it’s off it transmits a 0.

Haas says, “They can be switched on and off very quickly, which gives nice
opportunities for transmitted data.” It is possible to encode data in the light by
varying the rate at which the LEDs flicker on and off to give different strings of 1s
and 0s. The LED intensity is modulated so rapidly that human eye cannot notice, so
the output appears constant. More sophisticated techniques could dramatically increase
VLC data rate. Terms at the University of Oxford and the University of Edinburgh
are focusing on parallel data transmission using array of LEDs, where each LED
transmits a different data stream. Other groups are using mixtures of red, green and
blue LEDs to alter the light frequency encoding a different data channel. Li-Fi, as it
has been dubbed, has already achieved blisteringly high speed in the lab.
Researchers at the Heinrich Hertz Institute in Berlin, Germany have reached data
rates of over 500 megabytes per second using a standard white- light LED. The
technology was demonstrated at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in Las
Vegas using a pair of Casio smart phones to exchange data using light of varying
intensity given off from their screens, detectable at a distance of up to ten meters.

The general term visible light communication (VLC), includes any use of the
visible light portion of the electromagnetic spectrum to transmit information. The
D-Light project at Edinburgh's Institute for Digital Communications was funded
from January 2010 to January 2012. Haas promoted this technology in his 2011
TED Global talk and helped start a company to market it. PureLiFi, formerly
pureVLC, is an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) firm set up to
commercialize Li-Fi products for integration with existing LED-lighting systems.

4
 In October 2011 a number of companies and industry groups formed the Li-Fi
Consortium, to promote high-speed optical wireless systems and to overcome the
limited amount of radio based wireless spectrum available by exploiting a
completely different part of the electromagnetic spectrum. The consortium believes it
is possible to achieve more than 10 Gbps, theoretically allowing a high-definition
film to be downloaded in 30 seconds.

Figure 1

5
 HISTORY OF LI-FI

The need for Visible Light Communication (VLC)

Issues regarding Radio Waves:

1. Capacity:

 Radio waves are limited, scar and expensive. We only have a certain range of it.

 With the advent of the new generation technologies as of likes of 2.5G, 3G,
4G and so on we are running out of spectrum.

2. Efficiency:

 There are 1.4 million cellular radio base stations. They consume massive
amount of energy.

 Most of this energy is not used for transmission but for cooling down the base
stations.

 Efficiency of such a base station is only 5% and that raise a very big problem.

3. Availability:

 We have to switch off our mobiles in aero planes.

 It is not advisable to use mobiles at places like petrochemical plants and

petrol pumps.

 Availability of radio waves causes another concern.

4. Security:

 Radio waves penetrate through walls.

 They can be intercepted. If someone has knowledge and bad intentions then
he may misuse it.
6
So we should look for other parts of EM waves.

Gamma rays are simply very dangerous and thus can’t be used for our purpose of
communication. X-rays are good in hospital and can’t be used either. Ultra-violet rays
are sometimes good for our skin but for long duration it is dangerous. Infra-red rays
are bad for our eyes and are therefore used at low power levels. We have already seen
shortcomings of radio waves. So we are left with only Visible light spectrum.

Figure 2

7
 Genesis of Li-Fi

Harald Haas, a professor at the University of Edinburgh who began his

research in the field in 2004, gave a debut demonstration of what he called a Li-Fi
prototype at the TED Global conference in Edinburgh on 12th July 2011. He coined the
term Li-Fi and is widely recognized as the original founder of Li-Fi. He is Chairman
of Mobile Communications at the University of Edinburgh and co-founder of pure
LiFi.

Haas used a table lamp with an LED bulb to transmit a video of blooming flowers
that was then projected onto a screen behind him. During the event he periodically
blocked the light from lamp to prove that the lamp was indeed the source of incoming
data. At TED Global, Haas demonstrated a data rate of transmission of around 10Mbps
-- comparable to a fairly good UK broadband connection. Two months later he achieved
123Mbps. In 2011 German scientists succeeded in creating an800Mbps (Megabits per
second) capable wireless network by using nothing more than normal red, blue, green
and white LED light bulbs (here), thus the idea has been around for awhile and various
other global teams are also exploring the possibilities.

VLC technology was exhibited in 2012 using Li-Fi. By August 2013, data
rates of over 1.6 Gbit/s were demonstrated over a single color LED. In September
2013, a press release said that Li-Fi, or VLC systems in general, do not require line-of-
sight conditions.

One part of VLC is modeled after communication protocols

established by the IEEE workgroup. However, the IEEE 802.15.7 standard is out-of-
date. Specifically, the standard fails to consider the latest technological developments
in the field of optical wireless communications, specifically with the introduction of
optical orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (O-OFDM) modulation methods
which have been optimized for data rates, multiple-access and energy efficiency have.
The introduction of O- OFDM means that a new drive for standardization of optical
wireless communications is required.

8
 Nonetheless, the IEEE 802.15.7 standard defines the physical layer
(PHY) and media access control (MAC) layer. The standard is able to deliver enough
data rates to transmit audio, video and multimedia services. It takes into account the
optical transmission mobility, its compatibility with artificial lighting present in
infrastructures, the deviance which may be caused by interference generated by the
ambient lighting. The MAC layer allows to use the link with the other layers like the
TCP/IP protocol.

The standard defines three PHY layers with different rates:

 The PHY I was established for outdoor application and works from 11.67 Kbit/s to

267.6 Kbit/s.

 The PHY II layer allows reaching data rates from 1.25 Mbit/s to 96 Mbit/s.

 The PHY III is used for many emissions sources with a particular modulation method
called colour shift keying (CSK). PHY III can deliver rates from 12 Mbit/s to 96 Mbit/s.

The modulation formats recognized for PHY I and PHY II are the coding
on-off keying (OOK) and variable pulse position modulation (VPPM). The
Manchester coding used for the PHY I and PHY II layers include the clock inside
the transmitted data by representing a logic 0 with an OOK symbol "01" and a logic 1
with an OOK symbol

"10", all with a DC component. The DC component avoids the light extinction in
case of an extended line of logic 0.

VLC technology is ready to use right now; it's being installed in museums and
businesses across France, and is being embraced by EDF, one of the nation's largest
utilities.

9
WORKING PRINCIPLES

Li-Fi 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. But unlike other light sources LEDs can turn on & off millions of times
per second. 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, it
transmits a digital 1, if it’s off it transmits 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 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.

10
 Figure 3

To further get a grasp of Li-Fi consider an IR remote. It sends a single data

stream of bits at the rate of 10,000-20,000 bps. Now replace the IR LED with a
Light Box containing a large LED array. This system is capable of sending thousands
of such streams at very fast rate. Light is inherently safe and can be used in
places where radio frequency communication is often deemed problematic, such as
in aircraft cabins or hospitals. So visible light communication not only has the
potential to solve the problem of lack of spectrum space, but can also enable
novel application. The visible light spectrum is unused; it's not regulated, and can be
used for communication at very high speed.

11
Visible light communication (VLC): A potential solution to the global
wireless spectrum shortage

Li-fi (Light Fidelity) is a fast and cheap optical version of Wi-Fi, the
technology of which is based on Visible Light Communication (VLC).VLC is a
data communication medium, which uses visible light between 400 THz (780 nm) and
800 THz (375 nm) as optical carrier for data transmission and illumination. It uses fast
pulses of light to transmit information wirelessly. The main components of this
communication system are

1. A high brightness white LED, which acts as a communication source and

2. A silicon photodiode

Which shows good response to visible wavelength region serving as the

receiving element? LED can be switched on and off to generate digital strings of 1s
and 0s. Data can be encoded in the light to generate a new data stream by varying
the flickering rate of the LED. To be clearer, by modulating the LED light with the
data signal, the LED illumination can be used as a communication source.

Due to the physical properties of these components, information can only

be encoded in the intensity of the emitted light, while the actual phase and
amplitude of the light wave cannot be modulated. This significantly differentiates VLC
from RF communications.VLC can only be realized as an IM/DD system, which means
that the modulation signal has to be both real valued and unipolar. This limits the
application of the well-researched and developed modulation schemes from the field of
RF communications. Techniques such as on-off keying (O-OK), pulse-position
modulation (PPM), pulse-width

Conventional OFDM signals are complex-valued and bipolar in nature.

Therefore, the standard RF OFDM technique has to be modified in order to become
12
suitable for IM/DD systems. A straightforward way to obtain a real-valued OFDM
signal is to impose a Hermitian symmetry constraint on the sub-carriers in the
frequency domain. However, the resulting time-domain signal is still bipolar. One way
for obtaining a unipolar signal is to introduce a positive direct current (DC) bias
around which the amplitude of the OFDM signal can vary.

The resulting unipolar modulation scheme is known as DC-biased optical

OFDM (DCO-OFDM). The addition of the constant biasing level leads to a significant
increase in electrical energy consumption. This can be easily visualized when Fig 3-2
(a) and Fig 3-2(b) are juxtaposed. However, if the light sources are used for
illumination at the same time, the light output as a result of the DC bias is not wasted
as it is used to fulfil the illumination function. Only if illumination is not required, such
as in the uplink of a Li-Fi system, the DC bias can significantly compromise energy
efficiency. Therefore, researchers have devoted significant efforts to designing an
OFDM-based modulation scheme which is purely unipolar. Some well-known
solutions include: asymmetrically clipped optical OFDM (ACO-OFDM), pulse-
amplitude-modulated discrete multi-tone modulation (PAM-DMT), unipolar OFDM (U-
OFDM), Flip-OFDM, spectrally-factorized optical OFDM (SFO- OFDM). The
general disadvantage of all these techniques is a 50% loss in spectral efficiency,
i.e., the data rates are halved. This limitation has recently been overcome.

Multiple accesses using VLC

A networking solution cannot be realized without a suitable multiple access

scheme that allows multiple users to share the communication resources without any
mutual cross- talk. Multiple access schemes used in RF communications can be
adapted for VLC as long as the necessary modifications related to the IM/DD nature
of the modulation signals are performed. OFDM comes with a natural extension for
multiple accesses – OFDMA. Single- carrier modulation schemes such as M-PAM,
OOK and PWM require an additional multiple access technique such as frequency
division multiple access (FDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA) and/or
code division multiple access (CDMA). The results of an investigation regarding the
performance of OFDMA versus TDMA and CDMA are presented in Fig 3-3.
FDMA has not been considered due to its close similarity to OFDMA, and the fact

13
that OWC does not use super heterodyning. In addition, due to the limited modulation
bandwidth of the front-end elements, this scheme would not present a very efficient
use of the LED modulation bandwidth.

Figure 4

14
Technology in Brief

LI-FI is a new class of high intensity light source of solid state design bringing
clean lighting solutions to general and specialty lighting. It is a 5G visible
light communication system that uses light from light-emitting diodes (LEDs) as a
medium to deliver networked, mobile, high-speed communication in a similar manner
as Wi-Fi. Visible light communications (VLC) works by switching
bulbs on and off within nanoseconds, which is too quickly to be noticed by
the human eye. Although Li-Fi bulbs would have to be kept on to transmit data, the
bulbs could be dimmed to the point that they were not visible to humans and yet
still functional. The light waves cannot penetrate walls which makes a much shorter
range, though more secure from hacking, relative to Wi- Fi. Direct line of sight isn't
necessary for Li-Fi to transmit signal and light reflected off of the walls can achieve
70 Mbit/s.

A data rate of greater than 100 Mbps is possible by using high speed LEDs with
appropriate multiplexing techniques. VLC data rate can be increased by parallel data
transmission using LED arrays where each LED transmits a different data stream. There
are reasons to prefer LED as the light source in VLC while a lot of other
illumination devices like fluorescent lamp, incandescent bulb etc. are available.

15
Li-Fi Construction

The LIFI™ product consists of 4 primary sub-assemblies:

• Bulb

• RF power amplifier circuit (PA)

• Printed circuit board (PCB)

• Enclosure

Figure 5

 The PCB controls the electrical inputs and outputs of the lamp and houses the
microcontroller used to manage different lamp functions.

 An RF (radio-frequency) signal is generated by the solid-state PA and is guided into an

electric field about the bulb.

 The high concentration of energy in the electric field vaporizes the contents of the
bulb to a plasma state at the bulb’s centre; this controlled plasma generates an
intense source of light. All of these subassemblies are contained in an aluminium
enclosure.

 Function of the bulb:

The heart of LIFI™ is the bulb sub-assembly where a sealed bulb is embedded in
a dielectric material. This design is more reliable than conventional light sources that

16
insert degradable electrodes into the bulb. The dielectric material serves two purposes;
first, as a waveguide for the RF energy transmitted by the PA and second, as an
electric field concentrator that focuses energy in the bulb. The energy from the electric
field rapidly heats the material in the bulb to a plasma state that emits light of high
intensity and full spectrum.

Uplink

Up until now, research has primarily focused on maximizing the transmission

speeds over a single unidirectional link. However, for a complete Li-Fi communication
system, full duplex communication is required, i.e., an uplink connection from the
mobile terminals to the optical AP has to be provided. Existing duplex techniques used
in RF such time division duplexing (TDD) and frequency division duplexing (FDD) could
be considered, where the downlink and the uplink are separated by different time slots,
or different frequency bands respectively. However, FDD is more difficult to realize due
to the limited bandwidth of the front-end devices, and because super heterodyning is not
used in IM/DD systems. TDD provides a viable option, but imposes precise timing
and synchronization constraints which are needed for data decoding, anyway.
However, plain TDD assumes that both the uplink and the downlink transmissions
are performed over the same physical wavelength. This could often be impractical
as visible light emitted by the user terminal may not be desirable. Therefore, the most
suitable duplex technique in Li-Fi is wavelength division duplexing (WDD), where
the two communication channels are established over different electromagnetic
wavelengths. Using infrared (IR) transmission is one viable option for establishing an
uplink communication channel. A first commercially-available full duplex.

Li-Fi modem using IR light for the uplink channel has recently been announced
by pureLiFi. There is also the option to use RF communication for the uplink. In this
configuration, Li-Fi may be used to do the “heavy lifting” and off-load data traffic
from the RF network, and thereby providing significant RF spectrum relief. This is
particularly relevant since there is a traffic imbalance in favour of the downlink in current
wireless communication systems.

17
Summary

The design and construction of the LIFI™ light source enable efficiency, long
stable life, full spectrum intensity and dimming that is digitally controlled and easy
to use. With this features LI-FI lighting applications work better compared to
conventional approaches. This technology brief describes the general construction of
LI-FI lighting systems and the basic technology building blocks behind their function.

Working models

Within a local Li-Fi cloud several database services are supported through a
heterogeneous communication sys-tem. In an initial approach, the Li-Fi Consortium
defined different types of technologies to provide secure, reliable and ultra-high-speed
wireless communication interfaces. These technologies included Giga-Speed
technologies, optical mobility technologies, and navigation, precision location and
gesture recognition technologies. For Giga-Speed technologies, the Li-Fi Consortium
defined Giga-Dock, Giga- Beam, Giga-Shower, Giga-Spot and Giga-MIMO models to
address different user scenarios for wireless indoor and indoor-like data transfers.
While Giga-Dock is a wireless docking solution including wireless charging for
smartphones tablets or notebooks, with speeds up to 10 Gbps, the Giga-Beam
model is a point-to-point data link for kiosk applications or portable-to-portable data
exchanges.

18
COMPARISON BETWEEN LI-FI & WI-FI

Li-Fi is a term of one used to describe visible light communication

technology 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.

S.No Parameters Wireless Technologies

Light Fidelity Wireless Fidelity

1 Speed for data Faster transfer speed Slower transfer

transfer (>1Gbps) speed (150Mbps)

2 Medium through Light is Used as Radio Spectrum is

which data transfer carrier Used as carrier
occurs

3 Spectrum range Visible light Radio frequency

spectrum has 10,000 spectrum range is
time broad spectrum much narrower than
in comparison to visible light
radio frequency spectrum.

4 Cost Cheaper than Wi-Fi Expensive in

because free band comparison to Li-Fi
doesn’t need license because it uses radio
and it uses light. spectrum which
requires license

5 Network topology Point to point Point to point

6 Operating frequency Hundreds of Tera Hz 2.4 GHz

19
The table also contains the current wireless technologies that can be used for
transferring data between devices today (i.e. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and IrDA). Only
Wi-Fi currently offer very high data rates. The IEEE 802.11.n in most
implementations provides up to 150Mbit/s (in theory the standard can go
to600Mbit/s) although in practice you receive considerably less than this. Note that
one out of three of these is an optical technology.

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 part of the spectrum. Also, the speed of the internet is incredibly high and
movies, games, music etc. can be downloaded 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.

Technology Speed Data Density

Wi-Fi – 150 Mbps *

IEEE802.11n
Bluetooth 3 Mbps *

IrDA 4 Mbps ***

Wireless (future)

Wi-Gig 2 Gbps **

Giga-IR 1 Gbps ***

20
 Li-Fi >1Gbps ****

How is it different?

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 part of 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.

Li-Fi is a term often used to describe high speed VLC in application scenarios
where Wi-Fi might also be used. The term Li-Fi is similar to Wi-Fi with the
exception that light rather than radio is used for transmission. Li-Fi might be
considered as complementary to Wi-Fi. If a user device is placed within a Li-Fi
hot spot (i.e. under a Li-Fi light bulb), it might be handed over from the Wi-Fi
system to the Li-Fi system and there could be a boost in performance.

21
 APPLICATIONS AREAS OF LI-FI TECHNOLOGY

Air Ways
Whenever we travel through airways we face the problem in
communication media, because the whole airways communications are performed on
the basis of radio waves. To overcome this drawback on radio waves, Li-Fi is
introduced.

Figure 6

Medical applications

For a long time, medical technology has lagged behind the rest of the wireless
world. Operating rooms do not allow Wi-Fi over radiation concerns, and there is
also that whole lack of dedicated spectrum. While Wi-Fi is in place in many
hospitals, interference from cell phones and computers can block signals from
monitoring equipment. Li-Fi solves both problems: lights are not only allowed in

22
operating rooms, but tend to be the most glaring (pun intended) fixtures in the
room. And, as Haas mentions in his TED Talk, Li-Fi has 10,000 times the
spectrum of Wi-Fi, so maybe we can delegate red light to priority medical data.
Code Red!

Figure 7

In Traffic Lights

In traffic signals and brake lights Li-Fi can be used which will communicate
with the cars and other vehicles and accidents can be decreased.

23
 Figure 8

Secure communication

It is very useful to use VLC where a secure and private communication is

necessary. In visual light communication, the node or any terminal attach to our
network is visible to the host of network. Blocking the light and also blocks the signal.
However, this is also a potential advantage from a security point of view. Light
cannot penetrate walls as radio signals can, so drive-by hacking of wireless
internet signals would be far more difficult, though not impossible.

Multi user communications

Li-Fi supports the broadcasting of network. It helps to share multiple things at a

single instance called broadcasting.

24
Lightings points used as Hotspot

Any lightings device can be performed as a hotspot. It means that the

light device like car lights, ceiling lights, street lamps etc. all are able to spread
internet connectivity using visual light communication which helps us to use low cost
architecture for hotspot. Hotspot is a limited region (usually public places) where a
number of devices can access the internet connectivity.

Figure 9

25
Undersea Awesomeness

Remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) work great, except when the
tether isn’t long enough to explore an area, or when it gets stuck on something. If
their wires were cut and replaced with light, say from a submerged, high-powered
lamp, then they would be much freer to explore. They could also use their
headlamps to communicate with each other, processing data autonomously and
referring findings periodically back to the surface, all the while obtaining their next
batch of orders.

Figure 10

26
 ADVANTAGES OF USING Li-FI

The Li-Fi has the following advantages over RF based technologies.

Faster Data Transfer: Li-Fi is much faster than Wi-Fi and other current
technologies based on radio spectrum.

Free from Frequency Bandwidth Problem: Li-Fi is a communication

media in the form of light, so no matter about the frequency bandwidth problem. It
does not require the any bandwidth spectrum i.e. we don’t need to pay any amount
for communication and license.

Unlimited capacity: Visible light is part of the electromagnetic spectrum and

10,000 times bigger than the radio spectrum, affording potentially unlimited capacity.

Availability: Light Source is available everywhere, so possibilities of this

technology are very high. Data can be accessed in home, streets, hospitals, hotels etc.

Efficiency: Li-Fi uses LED lamps which are very energy efficient. This saves a lot
of electricity. If all the light bulbs are exchanged with LEDs, one billion barrels of oil
could be saved every year, which again translates into energy production of 250
nuclear power plants.

High Security: Data can be accessed only if light is available. Light cannot
penetrate through walls.

So there is less chance of unauthorized access of data, though it is not

impossible.

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Harmless: Li-Fi is a green information technology unlike radio waves and other
communication waves affects on the birds, human bodies etc. It never gives
such side effects on any living thing

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 CHALLENGES OF LI-FI

Apart from many advantages over Wi-Fi, Li-Fi technology is facing some
challenges. They are:

Presence of Light: Presence of light is essential. One can’t access internet if

there is no light source. Even on daytime the lights must be kept on to access data
through Li-Fi.

Line of Sight: Li-Fi requires direct line of sight. Indoors, one would not be
able to shift the receiving device. This is because visible light can’t penetrate through
brick walls or objects as radio waves and is easily blocked by somebody simply
walking in front of LED source.

Low efficiency with bulbs: It has higher efficiency with LEDs but very low
efficiency with bulbs. So, one has to use expensive LEDs to get a decent data
transmission rate.

Interference with other light sources: Other light sources can easily
interfere with Li-Fi thus interrupting data transmission. When set up outdoors, the
apparatus would need to deal with ever changing conditions. Also the power cord
immediately becomes data stream.

Not ready for two way communication: Li-Fi works well for one way
communication, i.e., the devices can receive data through it. But in case of two way
communication, there is no such well defined and reliable way how the device will
transmit data back.

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 CONCLUSION

The possibilities are numerous and can be explored further. If his

technology can be put into practical use, every bulb can be used something like a
Wi-Fi hotspot to transmit wireless data and we will proceed toward the cleaner,
greener, safer and brighter future. The concept of Li-Fi is currently attracting a great
deal of interest, not least because it may offer a genuine and very efficient alternative
to radio-based wireless. As a growing number of people and their many devices
access wireless internet, the airwaves are becoming increasingly clogged, making it
more and more difficult to get a reliable, high-speed signal. This may solve issues
such as the shortage of radio-frequency bandwidth and also allow internet where
traditional radio based wireless isn’t allowed such as aircraft or hospitals. One of
the biggest attractions of VLC is the energy saving of LED technology. Nineteen per
cent of the worldwide electricity is used for lighting. Thirty billion light bulbs are in
use worldwide. Assuming that all the light bulbs are exchanged with LEDs, one
billion barrels of oil could be saved every year, which again translates into energy
production of 250 nuclear power plants. There are few shortcomings in this
technology right now, but those can be overcome in near future.

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 REFRENCES

1. International Journal of advances in computing & communications, vol 1, 2013

http://www.ijacc.org

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li-Fi

3. http://oledcomm.com/lifi.html

4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/visible_light_communication

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