Harald Haas: Wireless data from every light bulb

Discussion in 'Computer Science & Culture' started by cosmictotem, Mar 17, 2015.

  1. cosmictotem Registered Senior Member

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    http://thenextweb.com/insider/2014/08/21/purelifi-li-fi-vlc-led/

    Am I understanding this correctly?

    So would the power companies turn into ISP's?

    I don't see this ever really working well enough for mobile devices but I like the prospect for home internet.

    Does this mean future computers will only need to be plugged into an light socket to power up and send/receive data? Through what would data be transmitted from your computer back to the ISP (power company)?

    Also in the video Hass says the light would have to always be on but couldn't the light just be enclosed within the computer so people don't have to see it if they don't want to?
     
    Last edited: Mar 17, 2015
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  3. billvon Valued Senior Member

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    They have been around for a long time. They are called PLC (power line communications) modems, and have been around for decades.
     
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  5. cosmictotem Registered Senior Member

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    So these modems can be plugged into already existing light bulb or electrical outlets and enable the user to transmit data ? My point being that if the infrastructure is already in place, that would be a huge implementation hurdle already overcome.
     
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  7. Kittamaru Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Adieu, Sciforums. Valued Senior Member

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    In my experience, there are a few faults with this:

    1) If the house has old wiring, there will be a LOT of signal noise due to worn/inadequate shielding, crosstalk, etc... not to mention old fuses/fuse boxes having issues
    2) From what I've seen, these are never as fast as dedicated data cabling
     
  8. billvon Valued Senior Member

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    That's the big benefit of this technology. However, since twisted pair (DSL) and coax (cable) already go to so many houses, there are often better/cheaper ways to accomplish this. In addition, the utility has to install infrastructure for PLC which adds cost.
     
  9. billvon Valued Senior Member

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    Almost no home wiring is shielded. Romex is the de facto standard; that's just insulated solid wire. The noise that is introduced is typically due to "noisy" electrical devices like motors and old lighting ballasts. Fuse boxes vs circuit breakers isn't a significant issue. However, since over-the-air transmission is even worse when it comes to noise, there are a lot of
    Well, they can get to gigabit speeds. One huge advantage when it comes to speed is that there is no "sharing" of the spectrum as there is in wireless communications.
     
  10. Kittamaru Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Adieu, Sciforums. Valued Senior Member

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    Interesting - I would have thought poor/cracked/damaged insulation (my apologies, I don't know why I said shielding as most Cat5e isn't even shielded) would have a larger impact than that

    The few times I have seen these used the speeds have been much lower than that - granted, that was quite a while ago though
     
  11. danshawen Valued Senior Member

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    This technique has already been shown to have serious security issues which would be difficult to overcome for some of the infrastructure applications he mentions.
     

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