WIRELESS NETWORKS
19
Transforming
wireless
Li-Fi in practice: where it’s used
By Comtec
www.comtecdirect.co.uk
One emerging technology that has the potential to
transform wireless communications in the coming years is
Li-Fi. This innovation, which uses modulating light rather
than radio waves to transfer data, offers great potential for
faster, more reliable connectivity at high bandwidth.
While the technology has been proven in theory for a
few years, what can it offer in the real world? Up until now,
commercial applications for Li-Fi have been somewhat
limited, but as new standards for the innovation emerge
and costs become more affordable, this is starting to
change as more organisations investigate what it can offer.
Here are three applications where the deployment of Li-Fi
is proving successful.
In the office
Many mainstream deployments of Li-Fi technology
are likely to be in large offices, where there’s a growing
need for better wireless connectivity solutions. With the
number of laptops, smartphones, tablets and Internet of
Things devices growing all the time, this is putting more
strain on traditional radio frequency-based solutions.
Indeed, as many more gadgets compete for the limited
bandwidth that’s available, this could seriously impact
speeds in the coming years.
Li-Fi offers a fast, reliable solution to this congestion.
Among the firms trialling this in live office environments is
the communications provider O2, who has installed Li-Fi-
enabled LED bulbs at its headquarters in Slough. The firm
noted that in addition to the speed and reliability benefits,
Li-Fi also has the potential to reduce the complexity of its
infrastructure and cut energy consumption.
Derek McManus, O2’s chief operations officer, said.
“Our Li-Fi trial shows how you can deliver high-speed
connectivity to customers in new ways and is another
example of how we’re future-proofing our network as we
pave the way for 5G in the UK.”
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In education
Li-Fi deployments aren’t just for large enterprises
with extensive wireless networks. In fact, this technology
is also useful on smaller scales, such as in the classroom,
where it has also proved successful in transforming how
users get connected.
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and the impact of this new
technology on networks
The technology has been tested at Kyle Academy in
Ayrshire, which has become the world’s first school to pilot
real-world Li-Fi deployments, with students using plug-
in dongles to connect their laptops to the network. This
illustrates how existing gadgets can be hooked up to Li-Fi
without the need to replace expensive equipment.
Using this technology greatly improves the connectivity
of the classroom and allows the learning environment to
be enhanced through better access to high-bandwidth
learning materials, such as videos and e-books.
In secure environments
Another advantageous factor for Li-Fi is the added
security and reliability it provides, which is something that
may be particularly important to companies operating in
highly sensitive environments, for example, the engineering
firm Babcock.
This company, which offers engineering services to
organisations including the Ministry of Defence, in the
marine, land, aviation and nuclear sectors, installed Li-Fi
solutions at its Connected Facility test bed at its Devonport
Dockyard in Plymouth.
The environment is used to test and evaluate
innovative new technologies that will allow it to develop
new operating models based on the use of digital data.
However, traditional Wi-Fi technology isn’t ideally suited
for use in this area, as radio transmissions can be subject to
interference and pose security risks.
Li-Fi, on the other hand, offers a much more secure and
reliable way of managing wireless communications in
critical, highly-sensitive scenarios, allowing the company to
quickly deploy solutions without impacting the overall risk
profile of its infrastructure.
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An emerging technology
These are just some of the ways in which Li-Fi technology is
proving useful in real-world applications for organisations
large and small. With similar trials taking place around the
world, and more commercially-viable Li-Fi tools becoming
affordable in the coming years, more use cases will
inevitably emerge. n
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