After Chinese researchers successfully connected four computers to the internet through the use of a LED bulb with broadband speeds of 150Mbps, UK researchers have gone a step further, saying they have achieved high data transferring speeds of 10Gbit/s via “li-fi.”

Micro-LEDs can transmit large amounts of digital data in parallel (photo courtesy BBC News/University of Edinburgh

In a joint research project between UK universities of Edinburgh, St. Andrews, Strathclyde, Oxford, and Cambridge, researchers were able to transmit data at speed of 3.5Gbit/s through white light with the use of micro-LED light bulbs. The micro-LEDs multiply data through streams of light that are beamed in parallel, much like the stream of water through a shower head, said Prof Harald Haas, an expert in optical wireless communications at the University of Edinburgh in a interview with the BBC. The micro-LED light bulbs can withstand high intensity charges of light per second which allows for high speed data transmission.

Coined Li-Fi by Professor Harold Hass from the University of Edinburg in 2011, it is expected to be cost-efficient and energy-efficient. The technology is still in the early stages of research and development and is not expected to reach store shelves any time soon.