The potential for this wireless network is endless. Similarly, Wifi made it easier to work from home, with laptops or other mobile devices. WiFi network is particularly useful in cases where the wiring is not possible or even unacceptable. This wireless connection can merge together multiple devices. But, WiFi is also the main reason for lots of battery consumption. It almost consumes 60% of phone’s battery.
So, a team of scientists from the University of Washington has found a new way that may save our phone’s battery from the constant drain of Wi-Fi. According to them, this new technology generates Wi-Fi to use 10,000 times less power than typical methods.
Co-author Vamsi Talla said, “All the networking, heavy-lifting, and power-consuming pieces are done by the one plugged-in device. The passive devices are only reflecting to generate the Wi-Fi packets, which is a really energy-efficient way to communicate.”
This new technology is called as Passive Wi-Fi. It effectively decouples analog and digital workings of radio transmissions.
The passive Wi-Fi simply bounces info around and it gets received with just 15 to 60 microwatts of power. It means, it only uses 10,000 times less power than your usual devices. Its transmissions can be used with any devices including routers, mobile phones, and tablets.
Professor Shyam Gollakota said, “We wanted to see if we could achieve Wi-Fi transmissions using almost no power at all. That’s basically what Passive Wi-Fi delivers. We can get Wi-Fi for 10,000 times less power than the best thing that’s out there.”
As compare to high-speed wireless connection, team’s current connection runs relatively slow i.e., 11 megabits per second. Although, they are working on improving connection speed.
According to researchers, this technology could certainly be the savior for your phone’s battery life. In addition, it will certainly reduce your monthly data bills by keeping you on Wi-Fi.
MIT Technology Review listed it as one of its top 10 innovative technologies for the year.