"LED LIGHTBULBS FOR WIRELESS NETWORKS"

Various researchers have created ways to transmit wireless information through LED light fittings for Wi-Fi based networks known as “Li-Fi”. Now engineers at the University of Virginia (U.Va) have created an algorithm that almost any device fitted with standard visible light LEDs able to communicate with other equipment with similar LEDs. For example the LED headlight in your car could communicate to the car in front of you through its LED tail lights, or the LED display in your clock radio could tell the coffee maker to turn on via its indicator light.

Prof. Maite Brandt-Pearce and Mohammad Noshad of Harvard University came up with an idea for transferring the LED fixtures signal to wireless devices. Streaming data at around 300 Mbps from each light, any and all LED lights in the vicinity could be used as wireless access points without the limiting bandwidth problems of radio frequency (RF) wireless networks.

Brandt-Pearce says that we developed a modulation algorithm which will increases the throughput of data in visible light communications. We can also transmit more data without using any additional energy. As more light fixtures get replaced with LED lights we can have different access points to the same network.

Unlike conventional RF Wi-Fi, the system could also be used in places where radio waves create problems or are not permitted, such as around medical equipment in hospitals, in electromagnetically-sensitive manufacturing environments, and in passenger aircraft cabins.

The idea in this technology is to transmit the data using the lighting systems that are already used for the illumination of indoor environments. Prof. Noshad says that the visible light communications offer a compact, dual-use, energy-saving solution and can provide a high-speed secure network connection for a large number of users. This kind of light can be used in any place that has lighting such as stadium, parking lot, etc.

Prof. Noshad also says that the visible light communications has the potential to increase the internet speed in multiuser indoor environment due to its broad bandwidth. It will offer a huge energy saving for the nation since energy is already used for lighting, and thus does not need to be expended for communications.

Thus the “Li – Fi” network by using the LED Fixtures will be more useful for the user’s for their daily basis activity.