Li-fi has a number of advantages over conventional Wi-Fi technology, including faster transmission speeds of up to 224 gigabits per second, and reduced energy consumption as it makes use of existing LED lights. (image: KobizMedia/ Korea Bizwire)
DAEJEON, Nov. 21 (Korea Bizwire) – Light Fidelity, or Li-Fi, is a system that uses household LED bulbs to transfer data and provide a wireless internet connection through extremely fast flickering.
Li-fi has a number of advantages over conventional Wi-Fi technology, including faster transmission speeds of up to 224 gigabits per second, and reduced energy consumption as it makes use of existing LED lights. It can also be much more secure than Wi-Fi as users can deliberately block the light from being transmitted in an unwanted direction.
Li-Fi is free from the traditional restraints of current communications technologies as well, and would be suitable for use in places such as hospitals, nuclear power plants, and on air planes, where wireless data transfers are strictly controlled due to concerns over electromagnetic interference.
According to the Korea Intellectual Property Office, the number of Li-Fi patents has steadily increased over the past decade; rather slowly in the mid-2000s, from two in 2004, to four in 2005, and 11 in 2006, but picking up gradual interest recently, from 40 in 2009 to 51 in 2012, and 61 in 2014.
Of the Li-Fi patents, 37 percent were filed by domestic enterprises, followed by universities (25 percent), overseas companies (13 percent), and local small and medium-sized enterprises (12 percent).
Samsung currently holds the most Li-Fi patents at 111, while Qualcomm had the most patents at 16 as a foreign enterprise. The Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute ranked second with 41 patents.
Industry watchers expect Li-Fi to provide a solution to the limitations of current telecommunications technology, especially amid rapid innovation in the fields of big data and Internet of Things.
“We’ve seen a consistent increase in the supply of LED bulbs, and we now have the foundation to implement Li-Fi systems,” said a KIPO official. “Considering that the latest big data and IoT innovations depend on the transfer of large data, we believe that the commercialization of Li-Fi is also imminent.”
By Joseph Shin (jss539@koreabizwire.com)
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Li-Fi is free from the traditional restraints of current communications technologies as well, and would be suitable for use in places such as hospitals, nuclear power plants, and on air planes.
Li-Fi can also be much more secure than Wi-Fi as users can deliberately block the light from being transmitted in an unwanted direction. Asus Customer Support