Li-Fi TECHNOLOGY

Mini Project report submitted to J.N.T.U. Hyderabad

In partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of degree

Bachelor of Technology

In

ELECTRONICS & COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING

By

KATHULA CHAVYA SRI 20PQ1A0427

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING

ANURAGCOLLEGE OFENGINEERING
(Approved by AICTE, New Delhi & Affiliated to JNTU-HYD)
AUSHAPUR(V),GHATKESAR(M), MEDCHAL-MALKAJGIRI(D),
T.S:501301 September 2023
 Aushapur (V), Ghatkesar (M),

ANURAG
COLLEGEOFENGINEERING
Medchal - Malkajgiri Dist.,
Telangana-501301
Phone:9866305132, 9866870972
Email:[email protected]
www.anuraghyd.ac.in
(Approved by AICTE, NewDelhi & Affiliated to JNTU-HYD)

Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering

CERTIFICATE

Date: / / 2023

This is to certify that the Technical Seminar report titled "Li-Fi TECHNOLOGY"
submitted by Kathula Chavya Sri bearing HT.NO:20PQ1A0427, to the Department
of Electronics and Communication Engineering for the partial fulfillment of the
requirement for the award of the degree "Bachelor of Technology in Electronics and
Communication Engineering", by Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University,
Hyderabad, is a record of bonafide work carried out by them under our guidance and
supervision in 2023-2024.

Guide Head of the Department

Principal
 ACKNOWLEDGEMET

The satisfaction that accompanies the successful completion of any task would
be incomplete without the mention of the people who made it possible and whose
encouragement and guidance have been a source of inspiration throughout the course
of the mini project report.
We express our sincere gratitude to our project guide, <GUIDE NAME>of
Electronics and Communication Engineering, Anurag College of Engineering, for his
precious suggestions, motivation, and cooperation for the successful completion of
this mini project report.
It is our privilege and pleasure to express our profound sense of gratitude and
indebtedness to our Head of Department, <HOD NAME>Department of Electronics
and Communication Engineering, Anurag College of Engineering, for his guidance,
cogent discussion, and encouragement throughout this mini project work.
We express our sincere thanks to the principal, Anurag College of
Engineering, for encouragement and constant help.
We also thank the management for providing us with the necessary facilities to carry
out the project work at the organization.
We take this opportunity to thank all our lecturers and technical staff who have
directly or indirectly helped our project. We pay our respects and love to our parents
and all other family members for their love and encouragement throughout our
careers. Last but not least, we express our thanks to our friends for their cooperation
and support.

KATHULA CHAVYA SRI 20PQ1A0427

 DECLARATION

We declare that this written submission represents our ideas in our own
words and where other ideas or words have been included. We have adequately
cited and referenced the original sources. We also declare that we have adhered
to all principles of academic honesty and integrity and have not misrepresented,
fabricated, or falsified any idea, data, fact/source in our submission.

We hereby declare that the results embodied in this project report titled
"Li-Fi TECHNOLOGY" requirements for the award of degrees were obtained
by us from our project. We have not submitted this project report to any other
university /institute for the award of any degree /diploma.

KATHULA CHAVYA SRI 20PQ1A0427

 ABSTRACT

Li-Fi, short for Light Fidelity, is an emerging wireless communication technology that
utilizes light waves to transmit data, offering a promising alternative to traditional Wi-
Fi. This abstract provides an overview of Li-Fi technology, its advantages, and
potential applications.
Li-Fi operates by modulating the intensity of light emitted by LED bulbs to
transmit data. These light signals are then received and decoded by specialized
receivers, enabling high-speed wireless communication. It is immune to
electromagnetic interference, making it suitable for use in environments where radio
frequency-based communication may cause interference or pose safety concerns.
Its high data transfer speeds, enhanced security, and immunity to interference
make it a compelling alternative to traditional Wi-Fi. With its ability to exploit the
vast amount of unutilized spectrum in the visible light range, Li-Fi offers several
advantages over conventional radio frequency-based technologies. Can also be
integrated into the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem, enabling efficient data
exchange between connected devices. As research and development in Li-Fi continue
to progress, we can expect to see its widespread adoption in various industries,
revolutionizing the way we connect and communicate wirelessly.

v
 CONTENTS

TITIE i

ABSTRACT v

LIST OF FIGURES viii

LIST OF ACRONYMS ix

LIST OF TABLES

LIST OF ACRONYMS xi

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Motivation 1

1.2 General Description 1

1.3 Objective of the Project 1

1.4 Organization of Documentation 2

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE SURVEY

2.1 Introduction 3

2.2 Existing Systems 5

2.3 Disadvantages of Existing System 6

2.4 Proposed System 6

CHAPTER 3

DESIGN AND ANALYSIS

vi
3.1 Introduction 8

3.2 Block Diagram 9

3.3 Block Diagram Description 9

3.4 Schematic Description 11

3.5 Flowchart 13

3.6 Algorithms 15

CHAPTER 4

RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

4.1 Objective 16

4.2 Test Setup 16

4.3 Result Analysis 17

18
4.4 Advantages

4.5 Applications 18

CHAPTER 5

CONCLUSION

5.1 Project Conclusion 19

19
5.2 Future Scope

REFERENCES 20

APPENDIX A

vii
 LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE TITLE PAGE NO

Fig 1.3 Location of Visible Light Spectrum 2

Fig 2.3.1 Main Components of Li-Fi 5
Fig 2.3.2 Working Principle of Li-Fi 5
Fig 3.1.1 Environment with Li-Fi 7
Fig 3.2.1 Optical Underwater Communication 8
Fig 3.2.2 Vehicle Visible Light Communication 8
Fig 3.2.3 Indoor Navigation Using Li-Fi Technology 9
 LIST OF ACRONYMS
Li-Fi Light Fidelity
Wi-Fi Wireless Fidelity
LED Light Emitting Diode
TED Technology, Entertainment, Design
UK United Kingdoms
VLC Visible Light Communication
Gbps Gigabits per second
Mbps Megabits per second

x
 LIST OF TABLES
TABLE TITLE PAGE NO
Table 4.1 Comparision between Li-Fi and Wi-Fi 12

xi
 CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION

1.1 GENERAL DESCRIPTION

Transfer data from one place to another is one of the most important day-to-day
activities. The current wireless networks that connect us to the internet are very slow
when multiple devices are connected. As the number of devices that access the
internet increases, the fixed bandwidth available makes it more and more difficult to
enjoy high data rates and connect to a secure network. Nowadays, Everyone is
interested in using his mobile phone, laptop to communicate with other people
through Wireless-Fidelity (Wi-Fi) systems, and this technology, Wi-Fi, is widely used
in all public areas like home, cafes, hotels and airports by people, also the time usage
of wireless systems is increasing exponentially every year; but the capacity is going
down, due to the limitation of Radio Frequency (RF) resources, so we are going to
suffer from severe problem. In order to overcome this problem in the future, Professor
Harald Haas, an expert in optical wireless communications, proposes in 2011 a
brilliant and applicable solution by using light to transmit data, he demonstrated how
an Light-Emitting Diodes (LED) bulb equipped with signal processing technology
could tream a high-definition video to a computer and he showed that one watt LED
light bulb would be enough to provide net connectivity to four computers. This new
technology is known as Light – Fidelity (Li-Fi). It is a short range wireless
communication system based on light illumination from LED, and use the visible light
as a signal carrier instead of traditional RF carrier as in Wi-Fi. Professor Harald Haas
coined the term "Light-Fidelity" and set up a private company, called “Pure Visible
Light Communication”, to exploit that technology. He envisions a future where data
for laptops and smart phones are transmitted through the light in a room in a secure
way. In this seminar, we will talk about its features, applications and advantages,
some practical projects that have been implemented; and we will show that it can be
seriously the future of communication technology
1.2 WHAT IS Li-Fi?
Li-Fi is a new technology for short range wireless communication system;
which is suitable for data transmission via LEDs by illumination. It uses the visible
light, a part of the electromagnetic spectrum that is still not greatly utilized, instead of

1
RF part Professor Harald Haas, the original founder of Li-Fi technology, in his
Technology Entertainment Design (TED) global talk on Li-Fi says: “At the heart of
this technology is a new generation of high brightness LEDs”, he also explains “Very
simply, if the LED is on, you transmit a digital1, if its off you transmit a 0, they can
be switched on and off very quickly, which gives nice opportunities for transmitted
data.”
It is possible to encode data in the light by varying the rate at which the LEDs flicker
on and off to give different strings of 1s and 0s.Figure 4 illustrates the idea of data
transmission using light. The LED intensity is modulated so rapidly that the human
eye cannot notice, so the output appears constant; also more sophisticated techniques
could dramatically increase Li-Fi data rates such as using array of LEDs, where each
LED transmits a different data stream, to provide parallel data transmission. Other
ideas are using mixtures of red, green and blue LEDs to alter the light frequency
encoding a different data channel. In the next paragraphs, we will talk about the
history of the technology, its working principle and its various advantages.
1.3 VISIBLE LIGHT COMMUNICATION
VLC is an optical communication technology that use visible light rays, these
rays locate between [400-800] THz, as optical carrier for data transmission by
illumination. It uses fast pulses of light, which cannot be detected by the human eye,
to transmit data. It includes any use of the visible light portion of the electromagnetic
spectrum to transmit information. The VLC standardization process is conducted
within IEEE wireless personal area networks working group (802.15).
Fig.1.3 illustrate visible light spectrum and its bandwidth.

Fig 1.3 Location of Visible Light Spectrum

2
1.4 ORGANIZATION OF DOCUMENTATION
This seminar includes the following
Chapter1: Explains about the background, introduction,what is Li-Fi and visible light
spectrum
Chapter2: Explains about the history of Li-Fi, construction and working of Li-Fi.
Chapter3: Explains life with Li-Fi, Applications of Li-Fi technology, Advantages and
disadvantages of Li-Fi.
Chapter 4: Explains the differences between Li-Fi and Wi-Fi, and Challenges faced.
Chapter5: This sections contains the final conclusion of the document.

3
 CHAPTER 2
HISTORY AND WORKING

2.1 HISTORY
The term was first used by Professor Harald Haas from University of Edinburgh,
United Kingdom(UK), in his TED global talk in 2011. Li-Fi idea rates as “one of 50
best inventions of 2011” on TED world site on the internet.
The first project which explains the idea of Li-Fi was The D-Light project. It was
funded from January 2010 to January 2012 at Edinburgh's Institute for Digital
Communications by Professor Haas.
Here is the history of Li-Fi:
 2011, Haas promoted this technology in TED global talk and helped start a
company to market it.
 October 2011, companies and industry groups formed the Li-Fi cosortium, to
promote high-speed optical wireless systems and to overcome the limited amount
of radio-based wireless spectrum available by exploiting a completely different
part of the electromagnetic spectrum.
 2012, VLC technology exhibited by using Li-Fi Consortium.
 October 2013, Chinese manufacturers work on Li-Fi development kits.
 April 2014, the Russian company Stins Coman announced the development of a
Li-Fi wireless local network called Beam Caster. Their current module transfers
data at 1.25 Gbps.
2.2 D-LIGHT PROJECT
D-Light, which means “data through illumination”, is the invention of Professor
Harald Hass. He says that his invention can produce data rates faster than 10 Mbps,
which is speedier than average broadband connection. He visualizes a future where
data for laptops, smartphones, and tablets is transmitted through the light in a room,
but Haas says that this version is limited by existing LEDs and by the usage of LEDs
as transmitters and detectors at the same time. However, he has created a better LED,
which provides a data rate close to 4 Gbps operating on just 5 milli watt of optical
output power and using high bandwidth photodiodes at the receiver. Haas says that we
can send data with a distance of 10 meters at up to 1.1 Gbps with a simple lens, and
soon they will increase that up to 15 Gbp’s. The 802.11ad Wi-Fi standard for the 60

4
GHz radio band reaches just under 7 Gbps, so Li-Fi would more than double of that
rate.
D-Light system uses Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM)
techniques, which allows us to vary the intensity of the LEDs output at a very fast
rate, invisible to the human eye, the bulb would simply be on and providing light. The
signal can be picked up by simple receivers. He says:“It should be so cheap that its
everywhere. Using the visible light spectrum, which comes for free”.
2.3 WORKING OF Li-Fi
Li-Fi technology is implemented using white LED light bulbs used for
illumination by applying a constant current. However, by fast variations of the
current, the light output can be made to vary at extremely high speeds. If the LED is
on, it transmits a digital 1 otherwise it transmits a digital 0. The LEDs can be switched
on and off quickly to transmit data that can’t be detected by a human eye.

Fig 2.3.1 The main components of Li-Fi system.

The fig.2.3.1 shows LED’s, Photodiode and Image Sensor the main components
of Li-Fi system. The LED bulb will hold a micro-chip that will do the job of
processing the data. The light intensity can be manipulated to send data by tiny
changes in amplitude, Photodiode is used as a detector.

Fig 2.3.2 The working principle of Li-Fi

The fig.2.3.2 shows the working principle of Li-Fi. Which consists of
transmitter side and receiver side.

5
 Operational procedure is very simple, if the LED is ON, you transmit a digital
1, if it’s OFF you transmit a 0. The LEDs can be switched on and off very quickly,
which gives nice opportunities for transmitting data. Hence all that us required is
some LEDs and a controller that code data into those LEDs.
 Thus every light source will works as a hub for data transmission.
 On one end all the data on the internet will be streamed to a lamp driver when the
LED is turned on the microchip converts the digital data in form of light.
 A light sensitive device (photo detector) receives the signal and converts it back
into original data. This method of using rapid pulses of light to transmit
information wirelessly is technically referred as Visible Light Communication.

6
 CHAPTER 3
ABOUT Li-Fi TECHNOLOGY
3.1 LIFE WITH Li-Fi
The dramatic growth in the usage of LEDs for lighting provides the opportunity
to incorporate Li-Fi technology into a plethora of LED environments, for instance any
lighting devices like car lights, ceiling lights and streetlamps are used as a hotspot
which helps us to lower cost architecture for a hotspot.
This technology is particularly suitable for many popular internet applications;
you can download movies, games and music in just a few minutes with the help of
Li-Fi.

Fig 3.1.1 Environment with Li-Fi

Figure.3.1.1 shows the environment with the Li-Fi technology where light bulbs
are used as a data communication medium to PC, Laptop and Tablet as it all have
photo detector connected to it as receiver.
3.2 APPLICATIONS OF Li-Fi
Due to its advantages, Li-Fi has a lot of Life applications. Here we will talk
about some important applications of it.
3.2.1 Underwater Communication:
Using RF signals is impractical due to strong signal absorption in water. Li-Fi
provides a solution for short range communications. Submarines could use their
headlamps to communicate with each other, process data autonomously and send their
findings periodically back to the surface in Underwater Remotely Operated Vehicles

7
(ROV). Another important issue is that Li-Fi can even work underwater where Wi-Fi
fails completely, thereby it’s open for military operations.

Fig 3.2.1 Optical Underwater Communication

Figure.3.2.1 shows water vehicles which use light to communicate with each
other and transfer data between them.
3.2.2 Traffic Management:
Li-Fi can help in managing the traffic in a better manner and the accident
numbers can be decreased. Traffic lights can communicate to the car and with each
other to manage the traffic in the street.
Traffic light can play the role of the sender of the data to provide information to
the car on the status of the road or about the situation of other cars as shown in
Figure.3.2.2. Also cars can communicate with each other and prevent accidents by
exchanging information. For example, LED car lights can alert drivers when other
vehicles are too close.

Fig 3.2.2 Vehicle Visible Light Communication

8
3.2.3 Blind Indoor Navigation System:
Indoor navigation is convenient for everyone, and it is especially indispensable
for the visually impaired. It is proposed in such a way, as a navigation system for the
visually impaired as shown in Figure.3.2.3. LED lights emit visible light with location
data and an embedded system or smartphone with a visible light receiver which
receives the data. The embedded system or smartphone calculates the optimal path to
a designation and speaks to the visually impaired through a headphone.

Fig 3.2.3 Indoor Navigation Using Li-Fi Technology

3.2.4 In Hazardous Environment:
Li-Fi provides a safe communication in environments such as mines and
petrochemical plants, because it doesn‟t cause electromagnetic interference which
appears in RF communications. Li-Fi can also be used in petroleum or chemical plants
where other frequencies could be hazardous.
For example, power plants like nuclear power plants require grid integrity and
monitoring of the station temperature that need fast, inter-connected data systems. Wi-
Fi and many other radiation types are bad for sensitive areas surrounding the power
plants. Li-Fi could offer safe, abundant connectivity for all areas of these sensitive
locations.

9
3.2.5 Disaster Management:
Li-Fi can be used as a powerful means of communication at times of disaster
such as earthquake or hurricanes, for example places like subway stations and tunnels
which are common dead zones for most emergency communications, don‟t pose
obstruction for Li-Fi, so it can be used there, as emergency communication.
3.3 ADVANTAGES OF Li-Fi
Its features include benefits to the capacity, energy efficiency, safety and security
of a wireless system.
3.3.1 Efficiency:
The efficiency of each radio station is just 5%due to the fact that most of the
energy is used for the cooling system in base of the radio station. Li-Fi is highly
efficient because LED consumes less energy. It is effective in terms of low cost, low
required energy and for various Environments.
 Low cost: Requires fewer components than radio technology, due to the cheap
price of the LEDs and Digital components compared with the microwave
equipment.
 Energy: LED illumination is already efficient and the data transmission does not
requires, additional power because most energy dissipation in LEDs requires little
amount of energy.
 Environment: RF transmission and propagation in water is extremely difficult but
Li-Fi works well in this environment.
3.3.2 Capacity:
Any lighting devices like car lights, ceiling lights, street lamps, etc. are used as
a hotspot. It means that any light spread internet using VLC which helps us to lower
cost architecture for a hotspot. The most important issues here are Bandwidth, Data
density and speed.
 Bandwidth: The visible light spectrum more abundant 10,000 times compared
with the RF spectrum.
 Data Density: Li-Fi can achieve about 1000 times the data density of Wi-Fi
because visible light can be well contained in a tight illumination area, whereas
RF tends to spread out and cause interference.

10
 High Speed: Very high data rates can be achieved as high as 500mbps or 30GB
per minute due to the low interference, high device bandwidths and high intensity
optical output.
3.3.3 Security:
Light is all around us – it is a natural part of life – and as such there are no
health concerns associated with its use as a communications medium. It never gives
any side effects on any living thing like radio waves and other communication waves
which can dangerously interfere with electronic circuits and have effects on birds and
humans.
3.3.4 Security:
Because of the signal will not travel through walls, it is difficult to eavesdrop on
Li-Fi signals. You can also see where the data is going, so there is no need for
additional security such as pairing for RF interconnections like Bluetooth.
3.4 DISADVANTAGES OF Li-Fi
Some of the disadvantages of Li-Fi Technlogy are as follows:
 Presence of light is essential.
 There should be line of sight
 Works better with fluorescent light and LEDs but very low efficiency with
Bulbs.

11
 CHAPTER 4
Li-Fi vs Wi-Fi AND CHALLENGES
4.1 Li-Fi VERSES Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi is the popular name for the wireless Ethernet 802.11b standard for Wire
line local area networks(WLANs). It is the name of a popular wireless networking
technology that uses radio waves to provide wireless high-speed Internet and network
connections. This technology works with no physical wired connection between
sender and receiver by using RF, a frequency within the electromagnetic spectrum
associated with radio wave propagation. When an RF current is supplied to an
antenna, an electromagnetic field is created that then is able to propagate through
space.
Li-Fi is a term of one used to describe visible light communication technology
applied to high speed wireless communication. It acquired this name due to the
similarity to Wi-Fi, only using light instead of radio. Wi-Fi is great for general
wireless coverage within buildings, and li-fi is ideal for high density wireless data
coverage in confined area and for relieving radio interference issues, so the two
technologies can be considered complimentary. Li-Fi provides better bandwidth,
efficiency, availability and security than Wi-Fi and has already achieved blisteringly
high speed compare with Wi-Fi. It is low-cost technology because of nature of LEDs
andlighting units and there are many opportunities to exploit this medium. Table 1
shows a comparison between LiFi and Wi-Fi.

Table 4.1.Comparision between Li-Fi and Wi-Fi

12
4.2 CHALLENGES FOR Li-Fi
Apart from many advantages over Li-Fi, this technology is facing some
problems such as Li-Fi requires line of sight (LOS) and receiving device would not be
shift in indoors. A major challenge is how the receiving device will transmit data back
to transmitter. Another important issue is interference from external light sources like
sun light, normal bulbs; opaque materials in the path of transmission will cause
interruption in the communication. Another disadvantage is that Li-Fi doesn’t work in
the dark or light can’t pass through objects, so if the receiver is inadvertently blocked
in any way, then the signal will immediately cut out. And the signal is easily blocked
by somebody simply walking in front of the LED source.

13
 CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSION
5.1 CONCLUSION
The possibilities are numerous and can be explored further because the concept of
Li-Fi is currently attracting lot of eye-balls because it offers a genuine and very
efficient alternative to radio based wireless. It has a good chance to replace the
traditional Wi-Fi because as an ever increasing population is using wireless internet,
the air waves are becoming increasingly clogged, making it more and more difficult to
get a reliable, high-speed signal. In the future, data for laptops, smart phones and
tablets can be transmitted through light in the room by using Li-Fi. Researchers are
developing micron sized LED which are able to flicker on and off around 1000 times
quicker than larger LED. If this technology can be put into practical use, every bulb
can be used as a WiFi hotspot to transmit wireless data and we will proceed toward
the cleaner, greener, safer and brighter future. This concept promises to solve issues
such as the shortage of radio-frequency bandwidth and boot out the disadvantages of
Wi-Fi. Li-Fi is the upcoming and on growing technology acting as competent for
various other developing and already invented technologies. Hence the future
applications of the Li-Fi can be predicted and extended to different platforms and
various walks of human life.
5.2 FUTURE SCOPE
As light is everywhere and free to use, there is a great scope for the use and
evolution of Li-Fi technology. If this technology matures, each Li-Fi Bulb can be used
to transmit data. As the Li-Fi technology becomes popular, it will lead to a cleaner,
greener, economical, and safer communication system. Although Li-Fi promises to
solve issues such as, shortage of radio-frequency bandwidth and eliminates the
disadvantages of radio communication technologies, but it is also associated with
short range and the need of a light source. As such Li-Fi is not likely to replace Wi-Fi
completely, but the use of two together i.e. Wi-Fi and Li-Fi can prove to improve
quality of life.

14
 REFERENCES
[1] (2015, jan) Enhanced data transmission protocol for visible light communications.
[Online]
http://www.research-innovation.ed.ac.uk/Opportunities/enhanced-data-transmission- for-
Li-Fi communications.aspx
[2] R. Kizer, A. Mantica, N. McNeill, J. Tobin and S. Jones ,"Li-fi-anoverview-part-
1-purpose-and-function.," "IEEE Internet Policy Newsletter, June 2018. [Online].
https://internetinitiative.ieee.org/newsletter/june-2018
[3] I. Demirkol, D. Camps-Mur, J. Paradells, M. Combalia, W. Popoola and H. Haas,
"Powering the Internet of Things through Light Communication," IEEE
Communications Magazine, vol. 57, no. 6, pp.107-113, June 2019.
[4] E. Pikasis and W. O. Popoola, "Understanding LiFi Effect on LED Light
Quality," 2018 IEEE Photonics Conference (IPC), Reston, VA, USA,pp. 1-2,
2018.
[5] S. Chatterjee, S. Agarwal, A. Nath, "Scope and Challenges in Light Fidelity(LiFi)
Technology in Wireless Data Communication," International Journal of
Innovative Research in Advanced Engineering(IJIRAE), vol. 2, no. 6, june 2015.

15