What Is Infrared Communication?

Date First Published: 18th October 2023

Topic: Computer Networking

Subtopic: Data Transmission Technologies

Article Type: Computer Terms & Definitions

Difficulty: Medium

Difficulty Level: 4/10

CONTENTS

How Does Infrared Communication Work?
Advantages and Disadvantages of Infrared Communication

Learn about what infrared communication is in this article.

Infrared communication is a wireless technology that transmits data using infrared light. Infrared has a slightly longer wavelength than visible light and is undetectable to the human eye. It is most commonly used in remote controls for TVs, DVD players, and other entertainment systems. It has also been used to connect peripheral devices to computers, like keyboards and mouses, and transfer data, but Bluetooth is much more common for this.

How Does Infrared Communication Work?

Infrared is suitable for short-range communication and infrared LEDs are used to transmit infrared signals, which pass through a lens and focus a beam of infrared data. This receiver converts the infrared beam into an electric current for processing. For example, when hitting a button on the TV remote, like volume, an infrared LED repeatedly turns on and off to transmit the information.

Since infrared moves more slowly from ambient light than from a rapidly pulsating infrared data association signal, the silicon photodiode can filter out the infrared data association signal from ambient infrared.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Infrared Communication

The advantages of infrared communication are:

It is not vulnerable to interference. This is because it connects to devices 'one-to-one' and is less likely to be interfered with by another device. Also, it is not vulnerable to electromagnetic interference because it is not a radio technology.
It is less expensive than other technologies.
It is a simple technology that does not require much power, making batteries last longer.

The disadvantages of infrared technology are:

It can only transmit data over short distances. The two infrared devices must be within a few metres of each other to transmit data.
It requires a line of sight, making transmitting data more difficult if there are obstructions, such as furniture, doors, sunlight, or walls, that make it harder to get a direct view.
Data transfer rate is much slower than other wireless technologies. The maximum data transfer rate of infrared communication is around 4 Mb/s.