According to TechPowerUp, 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 recognized framework for LiFi technology deployment," said Li-Fi technology companies pureLiFi and Fraunhofer HHI.

Launched in 2011, Li-Fi stands for "Light Fidelity." Literally using visible, infrared, and ultraviolet light instead of radio frequencies for high-speed data transmission, Li-Fi uses special LED bulbs installed in homes and offices as routers. Because light travels much faster than Wi-Fi radio waves, data transmission speeds are much faster. To give an idea of how fast, Li-Fi companies promise a whopping speed of up to 224 GB/s, or "the equivalent of downloading 18 HD movies per second." According to the Li-Fi website, this speed is possible because "the visible light spectrum is 1,000 times faster than the RF spectrum, which is only about 300 GHz which is only about 300 GHz.

According to Fraunhofer, one of the largest Li-Fi companies, Li-Fi can benefit AR/VR and gaming with "very low latency."

More practical uses for Li-Fi could be in businesses, schools, hospitals, or other organizations that need fast, reliable, and most importantly secure wireless Internet would be other organizations that need it.

Light is both a disadvantage and an advantage for Li-Fi because it cannot penetrate walls like radio waves can. This means that a Li-Fi-equipped LED bulb would need to be in the room where Li-Fi is desired, but Fraunhofer said that since the data transmission range is limited to the light coverage area, it would be difficult to hijack the signal without being physically present in the same room, "the risk of interference or eavesdropping is . can be reduced."

Other Li-Fi companies answer many other questions on the official Li-Fi standard website. Regarding whether sunlight interferes, they say that "modulated light can be detected even in excessively bright conditions, such as daylight. Also, if you want to use Li-Fi in a dark room, it is a bit of a stretch, but they say it will work if the room illumination is below 10%. Somewhat surprisingly, the Li-Fi bulb can "pick up signals from light bouncing off other surfaces," so the device does not need to be in prospect with the Li-Fi bulb. However, the signal could be degraded.

Alistair Banham, CEO of pureLiFi, sees Li-Fi as "a complementary and additional solution to [radio frequency] communications."

The adoption of 802.11bb may mean that we will see Li-Fi products for consumers in the near future. Fraunhofer is excited about the new standard because it addresses the "mass market requirements" for Li-Fi products

Now that the new standard is out in the world, companies can begin to deploy Li-Fi devices like pureLifi's Light Antenna One in earnest. The company describes the tiny device as a faster, more secure alternative to Wi-Fi for secure tasks that require huge amounts of bandwidth, and says it is nearly ready for mass production. Pricing is still unknown.