Hardik Soni, Co-Founder & C T O, at Nav Wireless Technologies speaks with Clean Future about the future of LiFi and the development in the field of of Visible Light Communication (VLC-LiFi) and Wireless Electricity – Over the Air Electricity products
What is LiFi technology and how does it works?
We noticed in past few years, LEDs improvements in switching rates, brightness increase, and large scale diffusion drew the attention of research communities like us, which inspired us started looking at visible light as a new communication medium, complementary to radio frequencies, which are becoming more and more congested.
High power LED devices have benefits such as energy savings, long life, low maintenance cost, low temperature generation, better visibility and high brightness, all compared to those of the incandescent lights or fluorescent lights. For these reasons the traffic signals and the head lamps of the vehicles are gradually changing from electric light bulbs to LED lights.
What happens when the lights are off or flicker?
Lights needs be ON always, but there are NavTech’s VLC methods to dim the LED while maintaining high data rates until the current is dimmed to about 50%. After that the data rates will begin to diminish in a very graceful manner. So yes, you can dim the lights and maintain communications reliably.
We subtly modulate the current supply to the LED devices at relatively high speeds. We are not harshly switching the LEDs on and off, and we are not modulating at speeds anywhere near those perceptible to the human eye. Your TV and computer displays do flicker at just higher than perceptible rates, the same is true of some LED dimming technologies. VLC does not flicker the lights like this, it will not give you a headache!
What kinds of devices will use this technology?
There is a wide variety of usage the technology offers that includes:
- Specialized designed & programmed IC – Transceivers
- Photodiodes
- Solar Cells
- LiFi Enabled LED drivers
- LiFi Dongles
- LED lights
What are the advantages of this technology and what are security issues associated with LiFi?
The key advantages for LiFi technology is that it is secure, fast and top it all spectrum free unlike 4G or 5G. But nothing comes without its own challenges and similarly LiFi also has to deal with disturbances from the interference of sunlight, climatic interference such as dust, rain, fog as well as high noise pollution and currently it also lacks mobility part
What is the future of LiFi technology?
We certainly think LiFi has a future and as the technology matures it will be able to cater to the current set of challenges to evolve as a trustworthy source in the future.
The difference between the two services (LiFi – WiFi) according to us, LiFi has ability to manage user traffic that greatly affects their individual speed & security. The growing number of users and their incredible type of usage has prompted the Wi-Fi service to seek more means of entertaining the growing need for speed & secured channels. This resulted to overcrowding, which significantly slows down the whole service that too impacted by security breaches and data losses.
The Li-Fi will work at an astounding speed that readily matches the current need of users for capacity and efficiency. Li-Fi is “essentially an ultra-fast version of turning your flashlight on and off to create a morse code. The flashes occur so fast that they are not seen by the naked eye.” In its simplest form, a small microchip can be fitted in a potential illumination device and the idea will all be there with us. It’s about the “illumination and wireless data transmission.” The radio frequency that is currently being used by the Wi-Fi service is so overloaded that it is impossible to improve it more.
What products do you provide and what is your roadmap?
NavTech is working on specialized requirements, and developing products to provide secured & radiation free communications. Our approached is more towards to security, and safety with LiFi. And so, we are focused to create more products around security concerns rather to work on speed applications requirements.
Where do you stand after one year?
NavTech will be leader in providing LiFi enabled secured and radiation free communications products for defense, offices, hotels and hospitals.
What will be the tentative price point for transition from Wi-Fi?
NavTech LiFi hardware cost will be going to little higher than Wi-Fi hardware, but much cheaper in installation and maintenance.