TechPowerUp reports that the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers has certified 802.11bb as a standard for "light-based wireless communications," known as "Li-Fi." This certification "provides a globally recognised framework for deployment of LiFi technology," say Li-Fi tech companies pureLiFi and Fraunhofer HHI.
Li-Fi, which was introduced in 2011, is short for "Light Fidelity." It literally uses visible, infrared, or ultraviolet light instead of radio frequencies for high-speed data transmission. Li-Fi uses special LED light bulbs installed in houses and offices as routers.
Since light travels much faster than Wi-Fi radio waves, data speeds are significantly faster. How much faster? Speeds up to a ridiculous 224GB/s are promised by Li-Fi companies or "the equivalent of downloading 18 HD movies every second." According to the LiFi site, the speeds are "due to the fact that the visible light spectrum is 1,000 times larger than the RF spectrum, which is only about 300 GHz."
