Recently back in the early month of January a Siemens research project broke the record for wirelessly transmitting data. They achieved this with making use of white Light emitting diodes(LED) instead of what they use today which is radio waves. The researchers were able to transmit data up to 500/Mbps which beat the previous record of 200/Mbps. This new record crushes current WiFi standards, but WiFi is developing new standards that could push speeds up to a Gigabit.
The research company used Ostar LEDs, which are one of the top LEDs in terms of brightness. How this new LED networking works is that the lights are modulated at a frequency that allows for high speed data transferring and at the receiving end of this is a machine called a photodetector that gets the light signals and then transfers those signals into electrical pulses. Siemens refers to this transferring of data as Visible Light Communication (VLC). They claim this technology can be used in different ways, one way is that it can enhance the performance of wireless networks. Meaning if you live in a place where wireless networks interfere with one another, this new technology could be a different choice to use because there is no current use of light technology with data transfer and so using this would led to less interference.
Siemens claims that transferring data is more secure than radio waves since the recieving end must have a photodetector. The company also has other ideas of how to use VLC with applications such as LED stoplights that can transmit data to cars and trains for transportation use or safety. And the research group has tested out an idea using 5 combined LEDs that could transmit 100/Mbps over longer distances.
Great post John. That technology is incredible. I hope that it hits the consumer markets soon as I would really like to utilize the high transfer rates.
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