VLC and LiFi as Future of Wireless Transmission

Visible Light Communication (VLC) is a free-space advanced Optical Wireless Communication (OWC) technology that uses visible light (375nm-780nm) to transmit data across distances. VLC is much preferable than existing wireless technologies like Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, Bluetooth etc. in terms of security, data rate and cost. Conventional Wireless technologies use radio waves and this radio wave based technology is limited in bandwidth, interfered with signals of different electronic equipment and easily accessed or hacked by unauthorised users. To overcome these limitations, we can use visible light for transmitting data which can be referred as “Data Transmission Through Illumination�. VLC uses white Light Emitting Diodes (LED), which transmit information by flashing light at speeds undetectable to the human eye. VLC covers a huge area in terms of its application. Light-Fidelity (Li-Fi) is a new VLC based technology that is proposed in late 2011 by prof. Harald Haas, uses illumination for internet data communication and will be implemented in a near future. The advantage of Li-Fi over present wireless systems is that the electromagnetic spectrum bandwidth used for visible light communication (VLC) of Li-Fi is 10,000 times greater than for electromagnetic spectrum bandwidth of radio frequencies for present wireless systems. As VLC is a relatively new concept in the field of data transmission, a lot of research is being done so that VLC can be used for various commercial purposes. It is found that not a lot research has been on the development of Li-Fi, so the possibilities are wide open. If this concept can be implemented successfully, it will surely bring a revolution in wireless data transmission. This paper presents an overview of VLC and the design of Li-Fi circuit and analysis of its performance over traditional wireless systems.