China Achieves Internet Access via Lightbulbs

Chinese scientists have successfully developed a new cheaper way of getting connected to internet by using signals sent through light bulbs instead of radio frequencies as in 'Wi-Fi', a move expected to radically change process of online connectivity. The design and construction of light source enable efficiency, long stable life, full spectrum intensity that is digitally controlled and easy to use.

According to Ms Chi Nan, an information technology professor in Shanghai's Fudan University, who leads a Li-Fi research team including scientists from the Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

“Four computers can be connected to internet through one- watt LED bulb using light as a carrier instead of traditional radio frequencies, as in Wi-Fi.”

Current wireless signal transmission equipment is expensive and low in efficiency, noted Chi in the article. "As for cell phones, millions of base stations have been established around the world to strengthen the signal but most of the energy is consumed on their cooling systems," she explained, but noted the energy utilization rate was only 5 percent."

She explained a lightbulb with embedded microchips can produce data rates as fast as 150 Mbps, much higher than the average broadband connection in China.

The term Li-Fi was coined as early as 2011 by Harald Haas, a professor of engineering at Edinburgh University, with the name standing for Light-Fidelity. The technology made use of LED bulbs that glow and darken faster than the human eye can see, and LED lights being semiconductors could be programmable. Haas had suggested that the applications and capacity for data would be limitless, ranging from using car headlights to transmit data, or employing line of sight light sources as data transmitters.