International Journal of Electronics and Communication Engineering.

ISSN 0974-2166 Volume 10, Number 2 (2017), pp. 83-97

© International Research Publication House
http://www.irphouse.com

Li-Fi Based High Data Rate Visible Light

Communication for Data and Audio Transmission

S.Poorna Pushkala 1, M.Renuka 2, V.Muthuraman 3, Mydavolu Venkata

Abhijith4 and S.Satheesh Kumar5
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering,
Rajalakshmi Engineering College, Chennai, India.

Abstract
Light Fidelity (Li-Fi) is a data transfer technique that uses light. Light is
analogous not only to illumination but also to speed. Li-Fi is also much
secured since light cannot pass through walls. It uses visible light portion of
the electromagnetic spectrum to transmit information. Hence the visible light
communication solves the problem of radio frequency congestion. In this
project we transmit data and audio through light at very high data rates
without use of microcontrollers and its other peripheral devices.
Keywords: Visible light, Secured, High Speed

I. INTRODUCTION
Light Fidelity (Li-Fi) is a bidirectional, high-speed and fully networked wireless
communication technology similar to Wi-Fi. Li-Fi is the term some have used to label
the fast and cheap wireless communication system, which is the optical version of Wi-
Fi. Li-Fi uses visible light instead of Gigahertz radio waves for data transfer.
The term was coined by Harald Haas and is a form of visible light
communication and a subset of optical wireless Communications (OWC) and could
be a complement to RF communication (Wi-Fi or cellular networks), or even a
replacement in contexts of data broadcasting. The light waves cannot penetrate walls
which makes a much shorter range, though more secure from hacking, relative to Wi-
Fi.
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Direct line of sight is not necessary for Li-Fi to transmit a signal; light reflected off
the walls can achieve 70 Mbit/s. The term Li-Fi was first used by Haas in his TED
Global talk on Visible Light Communication. According to Hass, the light, which he
referred to as D-Light, can be used to produce data rates higher than 10 megabits per
second which is much faster than our average broadband connection.
Li-Fi can play a major role in relieving the heavy loads which the current wireless
systems face since it adds a new and unutilized bandwidth of visible light to the
currently available radio waves for data transfer. The visible spectrum is the portion
of the electromagnetic spectrum that is visible to the human eye. Electromagnetic
radiation in this range of wavelengths is called visible light. A typical human eye will
respond to wavelengths from about 390 to 700 nm. The dramatic growth in the use of
LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) for lighting provides the opportunity to incorporate Li-
Fi technology into a plethora of LED environments. Li-Fi is particularly suitable for
many popular internet “content consumption” applications such as video and audio
downloads, live streaming, etc. These applications place heavy demands on the
downlink bandwidth, but require minimal uplink capacity. In this way, the majority of
the internet traffic is off-loaded from existing RF channels, thus also extending
cellular and Wi-Fi capacities.
Although Li-Fi LEDs would have to be kept on to transmit data, they could be
dimmed to below human visibility while still emitting enough light to carry data. It
offers much larger frequency band (300 THz) compared to that available in RF
communications (300GHz). Researchers reached bit rate of 224 GB/s which is 100s
of times faster than our average WI-FI connection at home or office. Also, more data
coming through the visible spectrum could help alleviate concerns that the
electromagnetic waves that come with Wi-Fi could adversely affect our health. Li-Fi
can be the technology for the future where data for laptops, smart phones, and tablets
will be transmitted through the light in a room.

II. EXISTING DATA & AUDIO COMMUNICATION USING LI-FI

A. DATA TRANSMISSION AND RECEPTION
Optical wireless technologies called visible light communication (VLC) are more
recently referred to as LiFi, offers an entirely new paradigm in wireless technologies
in terms of communication speed, flexibility and usability. LEDs (Light Emitting
Diodes) are recognized in the terms of green lighting resource because they contain
no hazardous materials such as mercury emitted by fluorescent lamps LED’s have a
unique ability that goes beyond their use as energy-efficient lighting devices. They
can be switched on and off within nanoseconds, which makes them super-fast
transmitters of binary data. This flickering occurs faster than the eye can see, so even
LED’s used for room lighting can be used to transmit data.
Li-Fi Based High Data Rate Visible Light Communication for Data and Audio Transmission 85

Transmitter Section:

Fig.No. 1 Transmitter block diagram using Atmel

Receiver Section:

Fig.No. 2 Receiver block diagram using Atmel

The system architecture consists of a transmit section and a receive section. The
transmit section consists of the data input which is then fed into Atmel AT89S52 and
then to a transmission module consisting of transmitter circuit and LED. Based on the
data, the switching control generates a stream of 1s and 0s thereby encoding the data
in binary. The output of this control is given to the array of LED's which turn OFF
and ON at extremely high speeds. This ON-OFF modulation of the LED light
transmits the data. The receive section consists of a photodiode, e.g. silicon photo
detector or an Infrared germanium cylindrical detector. The photo detector
demodulates the incoming received signal based on the sequence of 1s and 0s. The
demodulated signal is then sent to a filter to remove unwanted noise. This filtered
signal is then amplified using signal amplification mechanism. The filtered and
amplified signal is then given to an output device such a speaker.
86 S.Poorna Pushkala et al

The input signal is thus remotely transmitted and received. Thus, a Li-Fi network is
established

Fig.No. 3 Transmitter circuit using Atmel

Fig.No. 4 Receiver circuit using Atmel

Li-Fi Based High Data Rate Visible Light Communication for Data and Audio Transmission 87

B. AUDIO TRANSMISSION AND RECEPTION

The circuit consists of two parts, which are receiver and transmitter. The transmitter
consists of 3 transistors and few passive components paired with 1 watt LED. Which
will changes its brightness with respect to audio signal. But changes in brightness due
to audio signal will not visible to human eye. We only see static illumination of white
LED. The receiver consists of a photo detector (here I used solar cell) which is paired
with an amplifier. The sound output is given by the speaker. The transmitter is
transistorized amplifier which consists of 3 amplifiers connected in parallel to drive
the 1 watt white LED. Each transistor base consists of voltage divider which gives
necessary bias for the individual transistor. The input stage has capacitors at each
transistor’s base for blocking DC signals which could degrade the quality of output.

Fig.No. 5 Audio Transmitter Circuit

The receiver consists of a 6 volt solar cell (3 volts above works fine) in series with
2.2uf capacitor which is paired with an amplifier. The amplifier need not to be the
same illustrated here, but you can use any amplifier lying around your house. But
make sure it as good sensitivity.

III. PROPOSED METHOD

DATA TRANSMISSION AND RECEPTION
The main advantage is visible light’s frequency spectrum bandwidth, which ranges
from 430 THz to 750 THz. The bandwidth is much larger than the radio frequency
bandwidth, which ranges from 3 kHz to 300 GHz. A new generation of high
brightness light-emitting diodes forms the core part of light fidelity technology. The
88 S.Poorna Pushkala et al

logic is very simple. If the LED is ON, a digital 1 is transmitted, if the LED is OFF, a
digital 0 is transmitted. These high brightness LEDs can be switched on and off very
quickly which gives us a very nice opportunities for transmitting data through light.
The input data is given as a input to the X-CTU software.

Fig.No.6 Block diagram of proposed data transfer system

XCTU is a multi-platform application compatible with Windows, Mac OS and Linux.

Graphical Network View for simple wireless network configuration and
architecture. It includes new tools that make it easy to set-up, configure and test X-
Bee RF modules. The speed of data transmission in serial communication is specified
by baud rates. Asynchronous data transfer is used for the serial communication which
is done at a lower speed, typically at standard rates such as 2400, 4800, 9600, 19200
baud etc.
Here the input data’s (character/numbers) corresponding ASCII value is generated
and simultaneously converted to BINARY and given to the LED .The laptop and the
circuit is interfaced using a TTL to USB convertor.
Li-Fi Based High Data Rate Visible Light Communication for Data and Audio Transmission 89

Fig.No.7 Circuit diagram of proposed data transfer system

The receiving terminal also comprises of similar hardware except for the photo
detector to track the data sent through the light from the led system. It consists of the
phototransistor as a light sensor, whose output is fed to a comparator built using low
power OP-AMP The comparator circuit makes the DATA IN into binary compatible
levels. Even though the amount of light falling on the phototransistor varies, the
comparator ensures that it is modified to a correct binary level .The corresponding
flickering to the BINARY 1s & 0s is performed continuously to form a data in the
form of an array. This is done to obtain data rates in the range of hundreds of
megabits per second. The LED intensity is modulated so rapidly that human eye
cannot notice, so the light of the LED appears constant to humans.
The receiving section is interfaced with another laptop where the received data (from
the transmitter) is seen in the X-CTU software, where the BINARY value that is
converted to ASCII values and the output is displayed in the XCTU terminal of the
laptop.
90 S.Poorna Pushkala et al

Fig.No.8 X-CTU software

Most XBee’s operate on the 2.4GHz 802.15.4 band, and the channel further calibrates
the operating frequency within that band. You can usually leave the channel setting
alone, or at least make sure every XBee you want to have on the same network
operates on the same channel.

AUDIO TRANSMISSION AND RECEPTION

The analog input is given through the AUX cable. Here analog input in form of
music, which is connected with the biasing circuit consisting of BC337 transistors
paired with passive components and connected to the 1W LED .The transmitted
signal from the LEDs has to be detected and acknowledged. So in order to detect the
message signal from the blinking led light we use a solar cell which comprises large
number of photocells connected in series.
Li-Fi Based High Data Rate Visible Light Communication for Data and Audio Transmission 91

Fig.No.9 Block Diagram of proposed audio transfer system

The solar cell detects the variation in light, since the blinking can be easily detected
and output of the solar cell will be in analog form. So using solar cell we could detect
and demodulate the message signal transmitted. The demodulated signal will be at
low voltage range.

Fig.No.10 Circuit diagram of proposed audio transfer system

So it is amplified to an arbitrary voltage level using an audio amplifier. The audio

amplifier is provided with a supply of 9V but it can accept only till 5V. Therefore a
92 S.Poorna Pushkala et al

7805 Voltage regulator is uses to maintain the output voltage at a constant value
.The output signal from the audio amplifier is given to the speaker. The speaker is
interfaced with the audio amplifier .The input audio signal transmitted is obtained as
output in the speaker. In order to prove the audio output received from our
experiment is same as the input audio signal, we have plotted the waveform diagrams
of the corresponding input and output audio signals using MATLAB.

IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

DATA TRANSMISSION RECEPTION USING Li-Fi
From the above working we have obtained with these results. Here the distance of the
reach of the light varies according to its environment such as fog, Smog, dust, etc..
We have tested with 3 different cases as with
 Clear path of sight
 Fog in path of sight
 Dust in path of sight

Fig.No.11 Comparison of different LEDs and distance travelled by light ray under
different conditions
Li-Fi Based High Data Rate Visible Light Communication for Data and Audio Transmission 93

We have found that the distance reached by the light ray with clear path of sight is
maximum when compared with the distance reached with fog and dust in the path of
sight.
The input voltage consumed by the existing and the proposed model is shown below:

5
4
3
2
1 output voltage input voltage
0 input voltage output voltage

Fig.No.12 Comparison between voltage consumed by proposed model and Atmel

Here the input is a constant 5V. But the output voltage fed to the LED in our project is
the same 5V whereas in Atmel the voltage fed to LED is only 4V and 1V is consumed
by the circuit.
The comparison is done with the existing system (using Atmel) and with our proposed
system.
10

8
Distance
6 covered using
Atmel
4 Distance
covered
2 without Atmel

0
2 bytes 4 bytes 6 bytes 8 bytes

Fig.No.13 Comparison of distance covered in Atmel and proposed model in carrying

bytes of data

The distance covered by the light ray is maximum in our proposed system when
compared with the existing system. To transmit a data of 8bytes the distance covered
is 6meters in existing system whereas the distance reached in our proposed system is
8meters.
94 S.Poorna Pushkala et al

AUDIO TRANSMISSION RECEPTION USING Li-Fi

Similarly the waveforms are plotted for the input and output audio signals using
MATLAB. The input analog signal from the transmitter circuit and the output signal
received at the other end of the circuit is recorded and the waveforms are plotted
accordingly.

Fig.No.14 Transmitted Audio

Fig.No.15 Received Audio

Li-Fi Based High Data Rate Visible Light Communication for Data and Audio Transmission 95

By comparing the above two waveforms, we have proved that the signal sent and
received are almost same.

V. CONCLUSION
Li-Fi is the trend of today and near future. It is one of the cheapest and efficient mode
of data transfer. These methods can be used to transfer data and audio in a better way.
Based on the observations and the graphical results obtained from the proposed
circuitry it is clear that the transfer of data and audio without the use of
microcontrollers is much more efficient and powerful.

VI. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We sincerely thank Mr.S.Richard Jebasingh and Mr.P.Sravanan, Assistant Professors,
Department of ECE, Rajalakshmi Engineering College for their valuable support in
completing this project.

REFERENCES
[1] K. Lakshmisudha, Divya Nair, Aishwarya Nair, Pragya Garg” Li-Fi (Light
Fidelity)”, International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887) Volume
146 – No.15, July 2016
[2] Mr. Shailendra Yadav and, Mr. Pradeep Mishra “LI-FI Technology for Data
Transmission through LED” in Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR)
Vol-2, Issue-6, 2016
[3] Deepali Bajaj, Isha Mangal, Asha Yadav, “Towards an understanding of Li-Fi:
Next generation Visible Light Communication Technology, Volume 4 Issue 4 (April
2015)
[4] Anil jaykumar chinchawade, Prof. K.Sujatha “light based Audio transmission with
home\office automation system” Vol. 5, Issue 7, July 2016
[5] S.Dimitrov and H.Haas, principle of LED light communication: toward networked
Li-Fi. Cambridge University press, Mar 2015.
[6] Nikhil Gujral, “LiFi(LED Based Data Transfer),International journal on recent
and innovation in computing and communication,vol:4 issue:3
[7] Girish Radakrishnan, “How to make simple LiFi circuit”, Feb2015
[8] Li-Fi (LED Based Data Transfer) Nikhil Gujral , Sagar Dolas, in International
Journal on Recent and Innovation Trends in Computing and Communication ISSN:
2321-8169 Volume: 4 Issue: 3
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[9] Liju Sajan1 , Lince Mathew2 , Abraham Thomas3 , Sarun Sathyan4, Bibin Baby”
WIRELESS DATA TRANSFER USING VISIBLE LIGHT COMMUNICATION”
IJRET: International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology.
[10] Harald Haas and C.Chen, ”What is Li-Fi” in journal of light wave
technology,July 2011
[13] H.Haas, “wireless data from every light bulb,” TED Website,Aug2011.

Authors

Ms.S.Poorna Pushkala is currently pursuing B.E in Electronics and

Communication Engineering from Rajalakshmi Engineering College,
Chennai. Her areas of interests are Analysis and Design of Antennas,
Optical Fiber Networks and Wireless Sensor Networks.

Ms.M.Renuka is currently pursuing B.E in Electronics and

Communication Engineering from Rajalakshmi Engineering College,
Chennai. Her area of interests are Optical Communication System,
Robotics and Embedded Systems.

Mr.V.Muthuraman is currently pursuing B.E in Electronics and

Communication Engineering from Rajalakshmi Engineering College,
Chennai. His area of interests are Visible Light Communication,
Embedded Systems and Design of Antennas.

Mr.Mydavolu Venkata Abhijith is currently pursuing B.E in Electronics

and Communication Engineering from Rajalakshmi Engineering College,
Chennai. His area of interests are Optical Fiber Networking, Visible Light
Communication and Image Processing
Li-Fi Based High Data Rate Visible Light Communication for Data and Audio Transmission 97

Mr.S.Satheesh Kumar is an active Assistant Professor at Rajalakshmi

Engineering College, Chennai. He was born in 1991 and accomplished
his Master of Engineering degree in Communication Systems at PSG
College of Technology, Coimbatore and completed his Bachelor of
Engineering under Anna University, Chennai. He is also experienced
with software tools like MATLAB, Verilog, ADS, C-Programming and Qualnet. He
is also a member of IEEE and Associate Member of IETE. He was elected as Student
of the week by IEEE student society of USA in the month of October 2014. He have
participated in various International Conferences and published papers in several
International Journals. His research focus includes Speech and Audio Signal
Processing, RF and Microwave Engineering, Artificial Neural Networks, Continuous
Speech Recognition Systems, Consumer Electronics and Error Control Coding.
98 S.Poorna Pushkala et al