MWC 2022: PureLiFi Teases Smaller LiFi-X-Style Dongle

PureLiFi is working on a LiFi dongle that's roughly half the size of the LiFi-X device launched at last yr's Mobile World Congress.

PCMag was shown 3D-printed prototype cases for the new device, and while we weren't allowed to take any pictures, we tin can say that one of them was about the same size and shape of a Roku Streaming Stick while the other was more than akin to your typical USB dongle.

In terms of functionality, the new device will operate exactly like the LiFi-X, connecting Windows and Mac devices to the Internet via light from power over Ethernet-continued LED bulbs, similar Lucibel's Luminaire.

PureLiFi spokespeople wouldn't tell us what the new device will be chosen, but they have a name and plan to launch it in Q3 this year.

Don't program on rushing out to the shops, though; this new toy will be sent out to potential industry partners who will provide feedback to PureLiFi's R&D team. As well as working on the adjacent iteration of its LiFi dongles, the Edinburgh-based startup is continuing to develop relationships with potential business partners including Cisco, which is working on calculation LiFi switches to routers and most recently BT, every bit reported by V3 last month.

Part of the entreatment of PureLiFi's technology is that virtually any LED bulb y'all tin buy in the shops at present can exist retrofitted. This has near limitless potential in one case you consider that every calorie-free fitting, from a street calorie-free to a bedside table lamp could turn into an access bespeak, supporting up to x devices at a time with no drop in quality. The electric current top speeds possible via the Luminaire organisation is 42Mbps, just LiFi is theoretically capable of delivering speeds in excess of 100Gbps.

PureLiFi's CEO Alistair Banham is an industry veteran, formerly president and general manager of ON Semiconductor'due south EMEA markets and head of global sales at Philips Semiconductors. He's excited about the variety of feedback PureLifi's been getting from partners, who have all unanimously hailed LiFi as a confusing technology.

"We're beginning to run into more than and more than interest to put this technology or trial this applied science in those different areas," Banham said. "Location-based services, hotspot direction, all these areas where y'all tin can actually use LiFi to provide a pretty good service.

"You know what it's like in airports, you try to get on the Wi-Fi at Edinburgh or Luton and y'all continue getting kicked off, yous become frustrated. If you had a [LiFi] hotspot somewhere in that surround, where you have four or five Luminaires with LiFi on them, there's a nice business example for providers there."

Unfortunately for PCMag, we weren't able to fully avail ourselves of these benefits at Mobile World Congress and tell you lot how good it is. Even though at that place were working LiFi bulbs mounted in the ceiling of the Scottish Development International stand and a working LiFi-X dongle, PureLiFi didn't take whatsoever Mac drivers for u.s.a. to install on our trusty old 2022 MacBook Pro. It would have been wonderful to have filed this article via a LiFi connection, but that act of fourth wall meta japery will have to await.

Luckily we were able to play around with a Microsoft Surface, which was set up to work with the LiFi-X. What'southward great nearly the LiFi standard is that it works with Wi-Fi instead of replacing it, or as Banham says, it's "complementary and additive."

Placing a hand over the LiFi-X'south sensor disrupted the flow of light, therefore killing the connection. Equally the Surface was still connected to Wi-Fi, we were able to acquit on browsing the web as normal, although non at a noticeably slower speed. The Scottish Development International stand as well had the benefit of being probably the only stand at MWC where the Wi-Fi didn't totally suck.

Handing over between connected lights is seamless, then in Banham's airport scenario, people could stay connected as they moved around. This could also exist used to rails the movements of people every bit their phones paw over betwixt access points, which has the potential to assist with things like plough-past-turn navigation. This would be peculiarly handy in the labyrinthine corridors of Heathrow, especially in the consequence of last-minute gate changes.

Information technology'll be a while before LiFi sender and receiver modules tin can be built in to laptops, tablets, and phones, only work is underway on handover and multipathing with LiFi and cellular information streams.

"We're working on the standards and nosotros're heading a topic involvement group on 802.eleven. That comprises individuals from companies from all over the ecosystem. And so that'southward telecoms companies, lighting companies, there'south product companies that are all working with us to and so take it, later this year, to a task group.

"Once that'southward been ratified, that will then form office of the 3GPP Revision 15, which then becomes part of the 5G standard. The indicate I want to to make is that if we become into the component space, we will be 5G-compliant and nosotros're driving the standard to ensure that LiFi is part of that and interoperable with the RF protocols. Nosotros've got RF spectrum crunch at the moment with all of the cellular bands full up. Visible lite gives us a swell opportunity for unprecedented bandwidth and data."

This gives us a practiced estimate for when nosotros can await to come across LiFi components worming their way into phones.

Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/mwc-2017/14334/mwc-2017-purelifi-teases-smaller-lifi-x-style-dongle

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