UK researchers have achieved a 10Gbit/s data transmission speed record via ‘Li-Fi’ connectivity.
Using an LED light bulb, researchers were able to transmit 3.5Gbit/s of data through each of the three primary colours, red, green andblue, which form white light, paving the way for the possible 10Gbit/s data transmission.
The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council funded the ultra-parallel visible light communications project, which was carried out as a joint venture between the universities of Edinburgh, St Andrews, Strathclyde, Oxford, and Cambridge.
Edinburgh professor Harald Haas said: "If you think of a shower head separating water out into parallel streams, that’s how we can make light behave."
A digital modulation technique known as Orthogonal Frequency Divisional Multiplexing (OFDM) was employed to enable micro-LED light bulbs to serve millions of alterations in light intensity per second, in fact behaving as an extremely rapid on/off switch.
The process also enables the transmission of large chunks of binary data at high speed.
Researchers also claim that the emerging technology would also offer economical wireless internet more securely in localised regions as it would not be able to pass through walls as traditional Wi-Fi routers do.
During early October, scientists at China’s Fudan University trialled the possibility of using signals transmitted via LED light bulbs to access the internet rather than using Wi-Fi.
