Let there be light! Wireless light-based Li-Fi looks to solve some of Wi-Fi's problems

Old-school smartphone fans didn’t get started using a Galaxy, iPhone, or even a Nexus — back before smartphones as we know them first took form, we had the PDA. But prior to ubiquitous cellular connectivity, communication with PDAs was always a bit of a struggle. One of the more unique solutions to emerge was IrDA, employing infrared light to wirelessly transfer information between devices. Now, over 20 years later, we’re wondering if light-based wireless communication could be about to make a return.

This year at CES, pureLiFi is showing off its latest tech based on Li-Fi. As you can probably surmise from the name, this is basically Wi-Fi that uses light, rather than radio waves, to communicate. pureLiFi has developed a tiny Li-Fi module that phone manufacturers are evaluating now, combining a miniature LED and receiver in a convenient package.

For CES, the company is demonstrating the tech incorporated into a phone case, but there’s no reason this couldn’t be baked right into a phone itself. Maybe the coolest thing about it, though, is just how seamlessly this ends up working — your phone doesn’t even have to know anything special about Li-Fi in order to use it.

That’s because the underlying communication structure of Li-Fi is the same as radio-based Wi-Fi — you know how all those flavors of Wi-Fi we’ve had over the years are known as 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11ac, and so forth? Well, Li-Fi is a member of that club, too: 802.11bb. That promises to make it incredibly easy to add to phones.

Before that, though, pureLiFi is getting started with a consumer product designed to help out when you’re trying to use 5G for home internet access, but have trouble getting a signal indoors.

The pureLiFi Bridge XC mounts on your window and uses light to send a data signal through it — at speeds up to a gigabit a second. It even sends power wirelessly to the outside unit, so you don’t have to worry about separate power wires. Then, it can connected to a 5G access point you’ve set up wherever you’re able to get a strong signal.

The company is also showing off the LiFi Cube Mini, which is basically your indoor access point for any Li-Fi-enabled devices. The signal it sends is largely line-of-sight (it can handle limited reflections), which pureLiFi is positioning as a privacy feature — there’s no way anyone is eavesdropping remotely, like they might with radio waves. And for people living in dense urban areas, this also means avoiding Wi-Fi interference from their neighbors.

Li-Fi tech has been in development for years now, but with these advancements it feels like we’re finally getting to a place where it might just make sense to start deploying widely, just like we have Wi-Fi or Bluetooth in phones today. Who knows? Gigabit IrDA on steroids could end up being the alternate wireless communication method that solves your next Wi-Fi headache one day.