Hasta La Gadget!

Stoked about the gigabit speeds your new 802.11ac WiFi router is pumping out? One group of scientists hailing from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and universities in the US, Israel and China isn’t so impressed, having generated a wireless signal clocking in at 2.56Tbps. Proof of the feat was published in Nature Photonics, which details their use of orbital angular momentum (OAM) to make the magic happen. Current wireless protocols alter the spin angular momentum (SAM) of radio waves to hold info, and by combining both methods the team was able to pack eight data steams into a single signal, resulting in the mouth-watering number noted above. The best part is, applying different levels of OAM twist to SAM-based transmissions theoretically allows an infinite number of streams per signal, meaning seriously increased bandwidth without the need for additional frequency. So far the wireless tests have only been conducted over a measly 1m, but the scientists reckon it’ll work at distances up to 1km and that the concept could also be used to boost speeds in existing fiber-optic cables. As with many scientific advances, it’s unlikely hardware capable of such speeds will be available any time soon, so 802.11ac will have to suffice… for now.

New wireless transmission tech hits 2.56Tbps, leaves WiFi feeling inadequate originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Jun 2012 05:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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American and Israeli scientists have developed a new system of wirelessly transmitting data using twisted beams of light that could produce a theoretical throughput of 2.5 terabits of data per second. For perspective, that’s more than 8,000 times faster than Verizon’s fastest home Internet connection known as FiOS, which boasts 300Mbps. At this speed you can transfer seven full Blu-ray movies per second.

The new method of twisted signals uses orbital angular momentum (OAM) to put more data into a single stream. ExtremeTech explained it well:

In current state-of-the-art transmission protocols (WiFi, LTE, COFDM), we only modulate the spin angular momentum (SAM) of radio waves, not the OAM. If you picture the Earth, SAM is our planet spinning on its axis, while OAM is our movement around the Sun. Basically, the breakthrough here is that researchers have created a wireless network protocol that uses both OAM and SAM.

The researchers twisted together eight 300Gbps visible light data streams using OAM over a space of one meter to achieve speeds of 2.5 terabits per second. The development comes just one month after it was finally proved that OAM is actually possible. With OAM, an infinite number of conventional transmission protocols, such as WIFi and LTE, can be twisted together for faster speeds without the need for more spectrum.

The team will be working increasing the transmission distance next, which currently at only 1 meter is not so useful. The limit in distance for this new method is likely to be under 1km.

Scientists create wireless connection capable of 2.5 terabits per second is written by Rue Liu & originally posted on SlashGear.
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