We all know about smart devices – Phones, tablets, watches, AI gadgets for the home… The list is getting longer. We are even starting to make our home smart, with the ability to turn on the heating or lights via an app before we get home.

The network called the “internet of things” is ever expanding, with billions of objects now having wireless sensors of their environments.

As a society we are moving more and more towards connecting all of our objects to the internet – even our furniture and office supplies. Thus, the technology that enables us to do this is scaling up.

A new fabrication method developed by researchers at Purdue University and the University of Virginia involves makes tiny, thin-film electronic circuits that are peelable from a surface – Basically, smart stickers.

Not only does the technique eliminate several manufacturing (and thus costs – win!) but it also allows any object that it is stuck to, to be controlled through an app and sense its environment. That is one high-tech sticker.

In a paper recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers start to demonstrate the wireless communiccation capabilities these stickers could provide on various objects.

Purdue assistant professor of biomedical and mechanical engineering Chi Hwan Lee tells how a sensor sticker could be customised to be stuck onto a drone and go into environments too dangerous for a person – His example was to detect a gas leak.

We mentioned earlier how the method used her cut down manufacturing processes. Lee’s new “transfer printing” method is a new fabrication technique that means that the damage that occurs from high temperatures and etching in standard manufacturing are avoided, meaning only one silicon wafer is used rather than one each time.

Today, most electronic circuits are built individually on a silicon “wafer,” a flat and rigid substrate. Although it can withstand the high temperatures and chemical etching that are used to remove the circuits from the wafer, it gets damaged which means that a new wafer is needed for each manufacturing process.

Using Lee’s method, only a single wafer is used to build a nearly infinite number of thin films holding electronic circuits. These can then be peeled off at room temperature with just water. Energy saving and lower cost!

A ductile metal layer, such as nickel, inserted between the electronic film and the silicon wafer, makes the peeling possible in water. Virtually any object can then be granted electronic features by the thin-film electronics being trimmed and pasted onto any surface.

For example, you could place one of the stickers on a standard flower pot, and then enable that flower pot to sense temperature changes that could affect the plant within’s growth. Pretty clever!

What kind of sticker would you use and on what object? I think I’d stick one to the kettle so that it could switch itself on before I even get up on the morning.

This technology holds a non-provisional U.S. patent. The work was supported by the Purdue Research Foundation, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL-S-114-054-002), the National Science Foundation (NSF-CMMI-1728149) and the University of Virginia.

For more information head to https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/07/180716164508.htm

A YouTube video is available at https://youtu.be/8tNrPVi4OGg.

This is our third and final blog in our Ubiquiti UniFi series. We’ve looked at what it is, as well as what the brains are behind Ubiquiti UniFi are – This time we’ll see the other elements to it are.

We have dedicated Wi-Fi experts working out of 3 locations across England, one of them being Cardiff in Wales, with a very varied client base. If this article gets you thinking that you could do with Ubiquiti UniFi for your business, our contact details can be found at the end of this blog.

So last week it was brains, this week it starts with the bread and butter…

The UAP-AC Range

UAP AC Range is Ubiquiti UniFi’s setup’s bread and butter. They might look like a UFO but don’t worry, it’s not aliens invading our hotels, universities and conference centres – It’s just a Ubiquiti UniFi invasion for the better connected business.

If you’re able to run a network cable to each of your devices, then this is the UFO, I mean device, for you. INn an ideal world, you would get best results from the following…

To stop bottlenecks and low latency, any device that is connecting to your network would need to have the least amount of ‘hops’ before it gets to the internet.

This is what the UAP ACs do. There is also various devices which cater to different needs. These include factors such as range, throughput, and bandwidth.

The four main devices in the UAP-AC Range are as follows:

• UAP-AC-Lite: Compact
• UAP-AC-LR: Long range
• UAP-AC-Pro: More throughput
• UAP-AC-HD: Most throughput, MU-MIMO

If you’re not able to run cables to each of your devices, then Ubiquiti UniFi Mesh may be able to help you.

Ubiquiti UniFi Mesh

If you need Wi-Fi in places that are tricky (or impossible) to reach with a cable, then Mesh networks are great. What’s brilliant about Mesh points is that they communicate wirelessly with each other to route traffic from connected clients.

image 7

The quality of the signal affects the way that traffic is routed. If you look at the diagram above, you’ll see that there a few mesh point options for the smartphone to connect to.

So there’s either Mesh Point 3 or Mesh Point 4. You might say that the smartphone is closer to Mesh Point 4, however, it actually has an additional hop to make before it can get to the internet and you want as few hops as possible.

In blog 2 we talked about the brains of the operation – The controller. The type of logic that decides which mesh point is best is just what the controller will handle for you.

Performance takes a hit for every hop that’s made. If running a cable really isn’t possible then the issue is solved with UniFi Mesh.

Unified Security Gateway (USG)

Looking less like a UFO and more like a familiar piece of internet kit is the Unified Service Gateway. While it looks like your conventional router, the USG does all of that and then some.

This devices functionality includes:

• DHCP
• QoS
• VPN
• Firewall
• Deep Packet Inspection

WAN Failover

You can either use your own router alongside UniFi, or you can cmoplete the Ubiquiti UniFi family and use the USG to let you manage all of the above through the UniFi Controller interface. Despite it being a modular system, you can control all of your devices through one single interface.

Deep Packet Inspection (DPI)

Also worth looking at, especially for your network administrator’s sanity, is the DPI. This can provide loads of information about your network. It examines data coming through your network and can even help in the detection of spam or viruses.

You can access the information via app, protocol or on a per-user basis. This kind of information can be invaluable, especially in shaping your network.

This enables a much better user experience overall. An example of this in action would be if you got people complaining that there was a slow network – Your netwok administrator could look at the DPI statistics and see where the most traffic is.

Conclusion

Over the 3 blogs, we’ve covered a lot on Ubiquiti UniFi and the many benefits it could provide for your business and network.

As with everything in life, it’s not perfect but really the main con would just be how complicated it can be to set up (although with organisations like us here at Geekabit, this can be done for you!).

The benefits more than outweigh the cons:

• They are scalable, stable and customizable
• Ubiquiti have a demo site where you can view all of the controller functionality
• There are a wealth of resources and support should you need it, via Ubiquiti forums and Ubiquiti subreddit
• Ubiquiti UniFi also has integrated products that can all work together like cameras and VoIP phones.

If this has caught your interest and you’re keen to find out how using Ubiquiti UniFi could help you, get in contact with our Cardiff based Wi-Fi Experts and find out how we could help with your installation.

If you need assistance installing, fixing, extending or hiring business Wi-Fi networks in or around Cardiff, our team are here to support you. You can email [email protected] or call 02920 676712.

With thanks to https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/ubiquiti-unifi-wifi-explained/ for the images. Find out more there.

At the end of Part 1 we looked at what Ubiquiti UniFi was, how this type of network differed from what you have at home, and the benefits of this in a business environment.

We work out of 3 locations in England, one of them being Winchester in Hampshire, with a very varied client base.

This blog will focus on the controller and UniFI Cloud Key.

UniFi Controller

This is the brains behind the whole operation – The Ubiquiti UniFi Controller. In essence it’s a piece of software that enables you to store all of the settings for your network. Impressively, this software is free of charge (yes, free! Unlike it’s competitiors…). It can also run on nearly any operating system.

What makes it even easier for network installers like us here at Geekabit, is that it can be installed in the cloud. This means that many different sites can be maintained from one single interface.

The controller can be thought of as a designer. You use the software to design your network, and then the controller looks for the devices that you’ve plugged in to make it happen. This means that you can configure things such as DHCP, IP ranges, wireless networks and much more.

When you plug in a UniFi device, they can be adopted by the controller, and thus the programmed settings will be pushed to that device.

The convenience of this doesn’t end there – It provides great functionality. For example, you can use a map in the controller where you can upload plans of your building(s). In this map you can draw walls, adding in to it such things as scale and wall thickness which enables it to to work out coverage and signal strength from where you place your UniFi devices.

If this isn’t something you would want running all the time, you can switch off the controller software apart from in the following cases:

1. Changes to network or device settings
2. Using the guest portal
3. Collecting Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) statistics
4. Using Ubiquiti UniFi Mesh
5. Upgrading device firmwareSome of these will be touched upon in Part 3, but essentially if you’re not using any of these, you can turn off your UniFi controller.

Perhaps one of the most useful things about this software is that the controller sports an amazing live chat function that has an actual real life human being waiting to talk to you on on the other end! What’s more helpful than that?

UniFi Cloud Key and PoE

One of the more unique devices in the UniFI family, this isn’t something used to start the internet (nor is it a stick of gum!). Designed specifically for the UniFi Controller, the UniFi Cloud Key and PoE is low powered with a Linux operating system on it.

Perhaps you didn’t want the controller running all the time because you’re mindful of the environment, however this worthy little contender means that you can have the controller running but don’t need to leave your workstation switched on. It’s special function is that it can be powered entirely using Power Over Ethernet (PoE).

What’s great about the UniFi range is that the majority of devices are PoE enabled. This means that they gets its network and power over a single cable. This means that there is less hassle when setting it up as you don’t need to run power as well as network cables to each device. As these switches are managed rather than the regular unmanaged switches, they are slightly more expensive but you can see why.

In order to prevent you forking out extra money fora PoE switch, UniFi does supply power injectors with some of their devices. While UniFi devices do adhere to the PoE standards, some of their legacy devices use passive PoE. It would be wise to ensure you check that your switch and UniFi device support the same PoE standard before purchasing. If not, that’s where the PoE injector comes in.

In our third and final blog on this subject, we’ll be looking at further elements including UAP AC Range as well as concluding what we know about Ubiquiti UniFi and how it could help your business network.

If this has caught your interest and you’re keen to find out how using Ubiquiti UniFi could help you, get in contact with our Winchester, Hampshire based Wi-Fi Experts and find out how we could help with your installation.

If you need assistance installing, fixing, extending or hiring business Wi-Fi networks in Winchester or around Hampshire, our team are here to support you. You can email [email protected] or call 01962 657 390.

With thanks to https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/ubiquiti-unifi-wifi-explained/ for the images. Find out more there.

This article will be the first in a series of 3 blogs on Ubiquiti and UniFi and how a business installation of this can aid your business. We work out of 3 locations in England, one of them being London with a very varied client base. In fact, Steve spent his Sunday there last weekend getting a hipster coffee shop in Central London back online!

Wi-Fi has become absolutely essential for everyday network needs in both a consumer and business sense. It’s useful for it’s convenience but occasionally very irritating as well, usually when it doesn’t give the functionality that is required.

The standard consumer devices are fine if you’re only running a few devices in your home, and you have little to no interference from neighbours. Particularly in a business environment, there can be issues and conflicting devices that make things tricky.

The solution may just be Ubiquiti UniFi.

The Benefits of Ubiquiti UniFi

The market for devices is varied with differing prices, but Ubiquiti UniFi have a place in the market with plenty of devices to choose from.
They can cover wider areas, are capable of being customised to meet individual business needs, and thus are a little more expensive than your standard consumer hardware.

The diagram below demonstrates the typical home.

Generally, this type of consumer will have one device to do various jobs in a small home network (modem, router, switch, and WAP).

In the home this is absolutely fine, and will likely work well over just a few devices, however in a larger building with multiple floors and more network traffic, a one-man-band of this nature isn’t going to cut it.

The next diagram illustrates how a Ubiquiti UniFi can solve problems for a larger network, by dividing the above roles into several devices.

This enables it to cover a wider area and prevent faults from happening.

We’ve spoken about access points in previous blogs; by having more than one around a large network, should one stop working it means only that point will need replacing without impacting the entire network.

In our next blog on this subject, we’ll be looking at how these elements all fit together.

But in the meantime, if this has caught your interest and you’re keen to find out how using Ubiquiti UniFi could help your business, get in contact with our London Wi-Fi Experts and find out how we could help with your installation.

If you need assistance installing, fixing, extending or hiring business Wi-Fi networks in London, our team of are here to support you. You can email [email protected] or call 0203 322 2443.

With thanks to https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/ubiquiti-unifi-wifi-explained/ for the images. Find out more there.

How many times have you left the house without your keys, or forgot to lock the door?

Maybe not that many, but after having 3 babies I can very much tell you that baby brain is real, and I could really have used a friendly reminder to grab my keys (or swap my slippers for shoes) on my way out the front door.

Luckily for people like me, Amazon has said that Alexa, it’s AI voice assistant, will now be able to guess what you’ve forgotten, or might forget, and even what you may be thinking.

Last week during an event in Seattle, the huge technology company revealed a new feature called Alexa Hunches. The aim is to use artificial intelligence to replicate human curiosity and insight.

Amazingly, technology has advanced enough to program intuition via deep neural networks and machine learning.

This Hunches feature is due to be launched later this year, when Alexa will be able to ‘observe’ (spooky) what it’s owners do in their home via smart devices (e.g. locks, lights, electricity outlets) and then once it thinks it’s detected a regular pattern, Alexa will remind it’s owners to do something they always seem to forget, like maybe turning off the lights before going to bed. It will even offer to do it for them.

They might be called smart home systems, but there is actually a lot of criticism of them being the complete opposite.

Some of the downfalls of the products on the market at the moment include needing to be a technical expert to set them up and program them, annoying glitches being commonplace, and worryingly the possibility of enabling corporate surveillance.

Amazon aims to overcome these downfalls and bring everything regarding the smart home system under it’s own umbrella.

New technology named Wi-Fi Simple Set Up is aimed to make it super easy to configure new smart home devices, says Amazon’s David Limp, Senior VP in charge of its Alexa service – All you’d need to do is plug it in.

Also on the agenda at last weeks event was a cheap-as-chips less than $10 chipset that can be built into electronic devices and household appliances during the manufacturing stage, meaning they would have Alexa’s voice control.

For example, they introduced a microwave, branded by Amazon, that had Alexa built in for just $60, paving the way for smart fridges, coffee makers, televisions, etc all with the power of Alexa.

The future that Limp and Amazon are envisioning is full of Alexa powered smart devices all around your home and car, from making your coffee to navigating your drive.

Their focus now is on making Alexa more human. Features like Hunches enables users to have deeper and longer interactions – She’s better at sustaining longer conversations will even whisper back to you if you whisper to her.

Along with being able to remind you to remember to lock the door on your way out, she will soon be able to alert you if she hears a suspicious sound while you’re not in the house, for instance the sound of smashing glass or the smoke alarm going off.

There’s a fine line between being helpful and being annoying, and whilst some people (like me) who would think it was brilliant for someone (or something!) to remind me to pick up my keys every time I was leaving the house, others might find it exceedingly irritating.

Of course, Hunches will only work with connected home devices for now, but the scope to build on this technology is huge.

Imagine getting home from work, walking through the door to your favourite radio station playing, a coffee brewing and and a list of your recorded TV programmes waiting for your perusal – all with a few voice commands. Or maybe even waiting for you all by itself!

This article has focused on Amazon’s Alexa but there will be plenty of others out there to rival them – Other brands are available…!

We can’t be the only ones who are excited by the prospects of future technology, and a bit of good old Wi-Fi, can bring.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/sep/20/alexa-amazon-hunches-artificial-intelligence

How often do you think ‘Thank God for Wi-Fi’? Well it’s not God you should be thanking, it’s Hollywood bombshell Hedy Lamarr.

Although better known for being the most beautiful woman in the world, you have the brains of Hedy Lamarr to thank every time you use your mobile phone, a Wi-Fi connection or any Bluetooth technology.

Hedy, born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler in Vienna in 1913, was keenly interested in science when she was a child, yet ended up being known as a star of Hollywood, featuring in films such as “Samson and Delilah” (1949), “Boom Town” (1940), “The Conspirators” (1944) and the Czechoslovakian film “Ecstasy” (1933).

She lived a life of sex and science, and although a brilliant actress, Lamarr’s greatest achievement and long-term contribution to society was not her role in Hollywood, but as an inventor of the very thing our generation cannot live without.

Along with composer George Antheil, she co-invented early techniques used for spread-spectrum communications and frequency hopping.
These technologies were originally designed and used for military purposes where they aided communication for decades.

Nowadays they form the core of many of today’s most popular wireless devices.

During the 1930’s, Lamarr witnessed first hand the potential dangers that came with the rise of the Nazi party whilst she was married to her first husband, Austrian arms manufacturer Friedrich Mandle. After escaping that marriage and moving to California, she became a Hollywood star and between shots and takes, began her practice of inventing things.

She viewed it as a hobby; she didn’t have to work on ideas, they just came to her naturally. Uninterested in partying or drinking, Hedy created an ‘inventor’s corner’ in her Hollywood home where she would focus on her projects between filming movies. With only a few movies to film a year, each one taking a month to film, Lamarr had plenty of time on her hands to devote to her fondness of science and technology.

Although few of her ideas came to fruition, the sinking of a cruise ship by Nazi U-boats in 1940 inspired her to action. She devised the idea of a radio signal that would hop between radio frequencies, preventing it from being jammed. This allowed airplanes to safely guide nearby torpedoes without being jammed.

After working alongside eachother on their idea for several months, Lamarr and Antheil sent a description of it to the inventors council in December 1940.

2 years later in August 1942, they were granted a patent for their “secret communication system” which they then gave to the U.S. Navy for no cost.

Frustratingly, the military did nothing with the idea or patent and nothing was implemented until the 1960’s, long after the patent had expired.
The military completely underestimated her brains, and instead focused on her body, advising that she’d contribute more to the war effort as a pinup, selling kisses. But she was so much more than that, and their invention has become the core technology behind Wi-Fi networks as well as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) cellphones and Bluetooth.

Despite the majority of us thinking multiple times a day ‘What on earth would we do without Wi-Fi?’ hardly anyone knows of the important contribution that Hedy Lamarr gave to this technology that nowadays we couldn’t live without.

Dubbing Lamarr’s innovative creation ‘spread spectrum technology’, The Electronic Frontier Foundation honoured her with its Pioneer Award in 1997, 3 years before her death.

Her invention was inspired by secret communications to win a war, but has given the world so much more.

With thanks to https://cynthiafountaine.com/2018/03/26/hedy-lamarr/ for the image.

Ubiquiti | New Colour Range and Finishes

Back in the days, Access Points (AP) used to be blunt and boring since you were limited to the white colour only. However, you can forget those days as Ubiquity is going to soon release their new range of colours and skins for the new UniFi nanoHD AP.

The Ubiquiti UniFi nanoHD AP features simultaneous, dual-band, 4×4 MU-MIMO technology and convenient 802.3af PoE compatibility. The compact design delivers a cost-effective combination of value and performance.

There are literally hundreds and hundreds of AC certified devices being used today, and all of them can benefit from the deployment of wave 2 AC access points. The nanoHD AP features the latest in Wi-Fi 802.11ac Wave 2 MU-MIMO technology.

Apart from speed, there are 3 main features that separate wave 2 APs from its wave 1 predecessor:

• MU-MIMO
• 4 spatial or data streams
• 160 MHz channels

What does this mean for your business?

With the right design in place, wave 2 access points can offer better performance using fewer APs, which helps boost productivity, efficiency and user satisfaction rates.

We’ve had lots of clients who asked about having an oak coloured access point, and we’ve always felt sorry to let them know it was not possible. But now thanks to Ubiquiti’s new range of colours and skins, they allow the UniFi nanoHD AP to blend into its surroundings.

Access Points | Better for Businesses

While range extenders are great for home Wi-Fi networks, they’re not efficient for modern businesses. This is because they can only support a limited number of devices at one time, usually no more than 20. While range extenders do increase the coverage of a Wi-Fi router, they do not increase its available bandwidth. Depending on the number of devices you have connected simultaneously, a range extender could end up weighing down your connection.

Access points, on the other hand, can handle over 60 simultaneous connections each. By installing access points throughout the office, users can roam freely from room to room without experiencing network interruptions. As they move through the building, their devices shift seamlessly from one access point to the next without dropping the connection—they will not even realize they are switching between networks.

Advantages of Using Wireless Access Points

When you have both employees and guests connecting with desktops, laptops, mobile phones, and tablets, 20 devices on a wireless network adds up quickly. At 60 simultaneous connections each, access points give you the freedom to scale the number of devices supported on your network. But that’s only one of the advantages of using these network enhancers—consider these points:

• Business-grade access points can be installed anywhere you can run an Ethernet cable. Newer models are also compatible with Power over Ethernet Plus, or PoE+ (a combination Ethernet and power cord), so there is no need to run a separate power line or install an outlet near the access point.
• Additional standard features include Captive Portal and Access Control List (ACL) support, so you can limit guest access without compromising network security, as well as easily manage users within your Wi-Fi network.
• Select access points include a Clustering feature – a single point from which the IT administrator can view, deploy, configure, and secure a Wi-Fi network as a single entity rather than a series of separate access point configurations.

Thanks to 4gon for the image.

Do the terms ‘802.11ac’, ‘Wave 2’ and ‘5GHz’ sound familiar? They are often associated with shiny new phones and Access Points. Conversely, ‘2.4GHz’ may invoke images of old barcode scanners and legacy home routers. Is this a fair perception?

It’s been apparent for a couple of years that the 2.4GHz band of Wi-Fi is getting more crowded. Allowing users to share this spectrum at the same time is the thing that made it so useful, but at the moment, the same feature unfortunately starts to make the spectrum unusable in several situations.

In 2016, Apple and Cisco issued a paper in regards to the best network practices for enterprises where they stated that the use of 2.4GHz band is not considered suitable for business and/or mission critical enterprise applications. They also suggested to businesses to change to 5GHz band and replace the 2.4GHz.

In 2014, the Wi-Fi Alliance analysed the Wi-Fi enabled devices in the world, plus the amount of selling and shipping of sales each year. The results showed that the number of new devices is going to continuously grow at a fast pace. Most of the devices sold today can work with both 2.4GHz and 5GHz spectrum, but they are set to default to use 2.4GHz spectrum. The reason behind devices being set as default to using 2.4GHz is to enable usability of these devices on older Wi-Fi routers. This unfortunately leads to creating an increasing demand in only one part of the spectrum. Hence, there is no doubt the bandwidth can get full.

What is the solution that the market has found?

Wi-Fi/802.11 started off in 1997 and it ran exclusively on 2.4GHz. Two years later, in 1999, 802.11a has launched and 5GHz became an alternative. Between 2009 and 2017, as specified above, most devices have been manufactured with 5GHz support. However, this is set to continue with 5GHz-only devices (802.11ac) which is seeing a rapid adoption rate.

Some of the devices like Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, etc. connect to Wi-Fi by exclusively using 2.4GHz. This might be a sign 2.4GHz is not dying. Sadly, non-Wi-Fi equipment interfere on the 2.4GHz frequency and makes it more congested than ever before. For this reason, Wi-Fi moves towards a 5GHz-only future.

What is the difference between 2.4GHz and 5GHz?

Most of the existent devices rely on 2.4GHz connections even though they have 5GHz support. 2.4GHz connection is a shorter, denser frequency which is better for range and in case there are walls between the router and the user. Having numerous devices using the same frequency impacts the overall quality and result in dropped connection occasionally.

Changing to 5GHZ connection results in less interference and there is a stronger signal, meaning a more reliable and constant connection and faster data transfer. The drawback of 5GHz is its shorter range in comparison to 2.4GHz and has more difficulty penetrating obstacles like walls or windows.

To conclude, 2.4GHz has better range but loads of interference while 5GHz has a shorter range with less interference.

The Future

The explosion of IoT has increased the dependency on 2.4GHz and some devices are still produced to connect to 2.4GHz frequency only. Manufacturers are doing this because chipsets are cheaper and often provide better connectivity range compared to 5GHz.

As devices start to focus on supporting both frequencies (2.4GHz and 5GHz) or 5GHz-only, we could see 5GHz becoming the cheaper alternative.

To answer the question of this article, we can safely say 2.4GHz is not dead but will be soon. However, technology needs to continuously find new solutions as the 5GHz spectrum can end up in the same place 2.4GHz did, meaning that if all devices move to using 5GHz, it may also get overcrowded.

For the future, experts advise to make sure you purchase devices that support 5GHz (802.11ac). Also, SDR can improve the operational efficiency and performance of a wireless network, and can also ease the transition to 5GHz-only frequency, so it may be worth investing in.

With thanks to Aerohive for the image.

In a world where technology evolved so much that almost everything needs an internet connection, you might ask yourself whether there will be enough bandwidth for all these devices. Will the existing system be fast enough for all the data? And most importantly, will the data be secure?

Scientists have the answer to all of these questions, through this upcoming technology called Li-Fi (Light Fidelity). This is believed to be the next generation of internet where light will be the medium for transmitting data. Yes, you read that right. The light you use in your house, with some modifications can be used to transmit data to the devices that require internet connection.

Li-Fi was invented by Harald Haas back in 2011, when he demonstrated for the first time that the light from a single flickering LED could transmit far more data than a cellular tower. Li-Fi was tested in labs and achieved speeds of up to 224 Gbps, giving this technology the potential to change everything about the way we use the Internet.

In 2015, scientists have taken Li-Fi out of the lab for the first time, trialing it in Tallinn, Estonia. The reported data transmission speed was clocked at 1 GB per second said to be 100 times faster than current average Wi-Fi speeds.

Li-Fi has also been tested in India this year. Education and Research Network (ERNET) is an autonomous scientific society under the IT Ministry. ERNET conducted a pilot test with Philips India and IIT-Madras at IIT-Madras campus, to gauge the impact and results of Li-Fi. It seems that the tests were successful, and further research is currently underway to make Li-Fi commercially viable. The pilot test was conducted a few weeks ago in controlled environment, and now, the researchers are collaborating with Indian Institute Of Science for further insights.

The technology uses Visible Light Communication (VLC). A medium that uses VLC between 400 and 800 THz. As said above, small impulses switching ON and OFF, like a torch, can be used to write and transmit data in binary code. However, do not worry about a light flickering all the time in an office or in your house, the speed at which the LEDs are switching is imperceptible to the naked eye.

Why do we need a change in the existing technology?

Since the beginning, we have been using Radio Frequency (RF) medium to transmit data wirelessly. RF uses radio waves which have a couple of drawbacks at the moment:

• High demand for the internet that could not be met by the current method
• Demand for higher network speed and, therefore, a need for a bigger bandwidth
• RF medium is not safe to be used in hospitals, power plants, aeroplanes etc. and these places will also need internet connectivity to match the modern era we are in
• RF is believed not to be safe, since your data can escape through walls and cannot be contained within a particular area

These couple of drawbacks call for a new technology – Let’s welcome Li-Fi. The benefits of Li-Fi, other than the faster speed, is that light cannot pass through walls, hence it makes it more secure, and with less interference between devices.

How does it work?

As mentioned above, Li-Fi uses light to transmit data through special modified LED lights, unlike the Wi-Fi connection that uses RF. As we know, LED is a semiconductor device and like all semiconductors it has switching properties which can be used to transmit data.

Every LED lamp is powered through a driver, this driver will get information from the Internet server and the data will be encoded in the driver. Based on this encoded data, the LED lamp will flicker at a very high speed that cannot be noticed by the human eye. The Photo Detector on the other end will be able to read all the flickering, decoding it after the Amplification and Processing of data. VLC has a frequency between 400 and 800 THz, while radio waves are just 300 GHz.

How far until we will be able to use Li-Fi?

Scientists say that Li-Fi will probably not completely replace Wi-Fi, but rather the two technologies could be used together to achieve more efficient and secure networks. Furthermore, this is also because replacing the existent Wi-Fi infrastructure with Li-Fi is not feasible. However, research teams around the world are exploring how to retrofit the devices we have at the moment to work with Li-Fi technology.

Li-Fi experts are aiming to start installing Li-Fi technology in hospitals and offer a plug-and-play application for secure wireless internet access, with a capacity of 11.5 MB/second (comparable to the first generation of Wi-Fi).

If applications like these and the trial in Estonia prove successful after further observation, we could achieve what Haas outlined back in 2011, namely the beginning of a new internet era.

Now, prepare to 01100101 01101110 01101010 01101111 01111001 00100000 01001100 01101001 00101101 01000110 01101001 00100000 01110011 01101111 01101111 01101110.

With thanks to trak.in for the image.

Remember the days where you had to wait for someone to get off the phone so that you could connect to the internet?

We might have moved quite a way on from that, but we do still get the occasional connection problems with todays Wi-Fi.

Over recent years we’ve seen internet speeds and Wi-Fi improve massively. Wireless connections are now more reliable than they ever have been, and data speeds are faster.

Unfortunately though, that doesn’t mean there’s never an issue. I used to work from a well known coffee shop a few afternoons a week while my little boy was at pre-school and I can say first hand that Wi-Fi isn’t without issue, whether it’s slow to load or just no connection, sometimes it just doesn’t do what you want it to.

Below are the most common problems you’ll encounter with your home network internet and how you can fix them.

S L O W Connection

This is a common problem and even though the speeds reaching most homes are getting faster and faster, wireless networks can get still get bogged down. You’ll likely find that your internet connection is still working, but it’s just the speeds that are slower than normal. Luckily there is usually a completely logical explanation that is quite straightforward to fix.

Cause: The most obvious (and probably more straightforward) problem with slow Wi-Fi speeds is being physically too far away from the router. The further you and your device are from the router, the more unreliable the connection will be.
Fix: It’s pretty simple… In the words of Phyllis Nelson, moooooove closerrrrrr. Get a bit closer to the router. If it’s in a different room, then try moving into that room and see if it speeds up. If this is an issue that frequently annoys you, and stops you connecting from where you want to, then try moving the router to a better spot. Try putting it in the most centralised location possible within your home, up high, perhaps on a shelf, and away from any other devices which could cause interference. (We’ve got a few blogs which touch on interference and what to avoid when placing your router). If that doesn’t fix the problem, then you could also consider extending the reach of your network by purchasing a second router and a set of powerline network adapters.

Cause: Another potential cause of slowdowns is a lack of bandwidth. If everyone is at home and sitting scrolling through their social networks on their phone, working on their computers, and catching up with a boxset on tv, all of these data-hungry applications will be causing your typically speedy internet to be spread rather thin.
Fix: If there are any devices which aren’t actively being used, then disconnect these. If you’ve got multiple people all trying to stream videos from Netflix, and someone else trying to game online, you could try connecting one or more of their devices directly to the router using a Cat-5 ethernet cable. This would free up some of the wireless bandwidth. If that doesn’t help, then unfortunately the problem may just be that you don’t have fast enough internet speeds to support everything at once. Perhaps you could suggest a family boardgame or a walk outside instead…
There is also a sneakier possible reason for the slowness, and that’s the chance that someone nearby, perhaps a neighbour, is leeching off your Internet. This is entirely preventable – Make sure you stay on top of your setup security, always have your network password protected, and only give it out sparingly.

Cause: Interference. We’ve blogged about this issue a couple of times and it can be a real problem. If you live in a crowded area then this issue is a very real possibility, but there are ways around it. Most people leave their settings unchanged when they initially set up their internet. Default wireless frequency channels (for example 1, 6 and 11) become very over-used.
Fix: Nowadays, we as a consumer are lucky with many newer model routers being capable of automatically selecting the least crowded frequencies upon rebooting. To check this, perform a power cycle on your router. You can also change them manually by logging in to the admin panel and choosing a different channel.In addition to this, if you have a dual-band router, you could try enabling both 2.4GHz and 5GHz. You can use the 5GHz channel for your most important connections.

Cause: Unfortunately, internet speeds during peak hours can slow for everyone, especially, again, in crowded, urban areas.
Fix: The down side to this is there’s not really a great deal you can do about it. If you can try to schedule your internet usage outside of peak hours then obviously that will help, but probably not always possible.

Cause: With wireless technology changing all the time, and having improved enormously over the last decade, you’ll be forgiven for not realising that the problem is simply an outdated router. New wireless standards have been put in place, speeds are faster than ever, fiber is being offered in more areas and devices you never thought would require an Internet connection now need Wi-Fi who’d have thought you’d be connecting your lights and fridge to the internet?
Fix: If you suspect that the router may be the issue, then it might be time to raid the piggy bank and invest in a new one. Best practice is to upgrade your router about every two years and can help you avoid certain issues altogether.

No Internet Connection

Cause: Every now and again, there’ll be a glitch in the matrix and the router or modem (or a combination or both) just stop communicating with each other. Annoyingly, there isn’t always an explanation, it’s just one of those things.
Fix: First and foremost – Try pulling the plug. Disconnect the modem and the router from power and wait at least 30 seconds before restoring power to both. More often than not, this will sort the problem and get everyone talking again.

Cause: Another common problem is the connection dropping completely, and not due to a hardware issue or anything like that, but rather a massive service outage.
Fix: This again, is one of those things that you unfortunately can’t do much about. Head to the nearest coffee shop (hopefully not the one I previously mentioned…) or get on the phone with your Internet service provider (ISP) and tell them affected. Whilst this frustratingly won’t do a lot to speed up the recovery time and get you back online, it will help the ISP know more about which areas are affected by an outage.

Hopefully one of these fixes will have fixed your Wi-Fi issue!

With thanks to osxdaily.com for the image