Look out world ... here comes Li-fi! (100 times faster than wifi)

[Lynx-lynx]

Frahse, I don't think we can begin to imagine how many methods, and how fast, we'll be able to receive 'data' in the future ....

[Lynx-lynx]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

Oh like a booklight? Have not needed one in years. And having self illuminated books I cannot possibly imagine going back in having to use a seperate booklight. Unless that torch is wired how is it supposed to get the data? Maybe over wifi, but wait, might as well use wifi to get it into my electronic device to begin with.

And like fjtorres correctly said, the problem is not the wifi, but getting internet into my house fast enough.

All that stuff'll get sorted out along the way to the release of li-fi, imo. I'd like to carry a small torch in my handbag, for instance, so that I can make use of data retrieval at will. It's not much different to carrying a usb stick wifi device around with me now.

[eschwartz]

Obviously, fiber-optic cables the world over will be replaced by strings of lightbulbs. (Running in little pipes along the ocean floor and everything.)

I am very disappointed with all you naysayers, when there is such a simple and intuitive answer...

[doubleshuffle]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Obviously, fiber-optic cables the world over will be replaced by strings of lightbulbs. (Running in little pipes along the ocean floor and everything.)

I am very disappointed with all you naysayers, when there is such a simple and intuitive answer...

I think we will have a network of towers with very big lightbulbs. They will be operated and maintained by dedicated nerds who will be responsible for switching the bulbs on and off. The whole thing will be called "the Clicks."

[Lynx-lynx]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Obviously, fiber-optic cables the world over will be replaced by strings of lightbulbs. (Running in little pipes along the ocean floor and everything.)

I am very disappointed with all you naysayers, when there is such a simple and intuitive answer...

Oh eschwartz I just knew you'd shed light on this innovation!! How illuminating your theory is

[murg]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

What do you do at night when the lights are out and you need to check email?

Use a candle.

[murg]

Originally Posted by doubleshuffle

I think we will have a network of towers with very big lightbulbs. They will be operated and maintained by dedicated nerds who will be responsible for switching the bulbs on and off. The whole thing will be called "the Clicks."

You mean like this:

[Lynx-lynx]

Originally Posted by doubleshuffle

I think we will have a network of towers with very big lightbulbs. They will be operated and maintained by dedicated nerds who will be responsible for switching the bulbs on and off. The whole thing will be called "the Clicks."

Brilliant thinking doubleshuffle!

[Lynx-lynx]

Originally Posted by murg

You mean like this:

Yes murg, a series of lighthouses - exactly. And a lot of the infrastructure is already in situ!

[alanHd]

I think they will modulate the Suns output and also have big mirrors In space to bounce it over to the night side.

[Dopedangel]

Broadband speeds most people get out 3-4mbps so how would lifi help speed up your internet. Today wifi exceeds the speed broadband internet for most people. Although I do have 1gbps internet and I pay Sgd$49.90/month for it.

[MikeB1972]

Just put the tech in streetlamps, this will have the double effect of free li-fi for everyone and finally getting everyone outside.

Well... at night anyway.

[dgatwood]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Actually, indoor bandwidth isn't the biggest bottleneck: it is the last mile.

Before the magical, miraculous Li-Fi can do you any good you need fiber to the curb, at least, and an ISP that doesn't meter, throttle, or charge an arm, leg, and firstborn for triple digit bandwidth speeds.

But indoor bandwidth would still be a bottleneck, at least with Li-Fi. The Li-Fi will get you network service within a room, but that would mean that you'd either need to wire fiber to every room in the house or come up with some other means of getting the traffic from the Li-Fi-equipped lamp (or whatever) to the room where your main home router is located.

Although 100-gigabit Ethernet gear does exist, the gear that mere mortals can afford still maxes out at 1 gigabit per second, with 10-gigabit hardware costing a staggering hundred bucks per port, and 100-gigabit hardware coming in at about one grand per port.

So this is more than 200 times the speed of the fastest Ethernet connections that you're likely to see outside of a data center. And even if you look at the fastest Ethernet that exists at any price, you'd still have to channel-bond at least three fibers to provide a backhaul for a single room (which means $3,000 per room, plus the cost of pulling three fibers and buying the Li-Fi gear itself).

Based on typical rates of technology price gouging, 10-gigabit Ethernet will be affordable in about 5 years. 100-gigabit Ethernet will be affordable in 10 years. The not-yet-standardized 400-gigabit Ethernet will probably not be affordable for at least 15 years. So basically, Li-Fi is at least 15 years away from being practical to deploy. By the time it becomes financially practical to provide a backhaul for Li-Fi, Wi-Fi will probably be just as fast. (*)

(*) Maybe not, but it is far enough in the future that I wouldn't rule out the possibility.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by dgatwood

Based on typical rates of technology price gouging, 10-gigabit Ethernet will be affordable in about 5 years. 100-gigabit Ethernet will be affordable in 10 years. The not-yet-standardized 400-gigabit Ethernet will probably not be affordable for at least 15 years. So basically, Li-Fi is at least 15 years away from being practical to deploy. By the time it becomes financially practical to provide a backhaul for Li-Fi, Wi-Fi will probably be just as fast. (*)

(*) Maybe not, but it is far enough in the future that I wouldn't rule out the possibility.

Have you considered the physics of it? 400GHz is approaching the frequency range of the far infrared, rather than radio waves, which means that such signals would be blocked by any solid object. It would be terrible for WiFi. The higher the frequency, the less able the signal is to go through obstacles.

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Actually, indoor bandwidth isn't the biggest bottleneck: it is the last mile.

Before the magical, miraculous LiFi can do you any good you need fiber to the curb, at least, and an ISP that doesn't meter, throttle, or charge an arm, leg, and firstborn for triple digit bandwidth speeds.

Yep! And in the USA good luck with that. Most providers want your firstborn child just for 20 Mbps speed and then it slows down a lot or just goes out on occasion. And with fiber optics like that used by AT&T U-Verse, if a construction crew anywhere within a few miles of you cuts the line, everyone loses WiFi for a very long time (perhaps days) while the AT&T repair crews try to figure out what happened and where. And then there is this: What if you have a BillionBps speed but the website servers you visit are slower than molasses? Well that BillionBps speed will do you no good. The weakest link in the chain is the slowest server being accessed, so no matter what speed you have the other guys will slow it down with their snail speed servers.