Communications of the ACM
Li-Fi-Like System Would Bring 100-Gbps Speeds Straight to Your Computer
Researchers at Oxford University and University College London are developing an indoor optical wireless system that offers the potential for data rates of 3 Tbps and up.
Credit: University of Oxford
Researchers at Oxford University and University College London are developing a system that takes light from optic fiber, amplifies it, and beams it across a room to deliver data at more than 100 Gbps.
Such indoor optical wireless offers the potential for data rates of 3 Tbps and up, but probably would not replace Wi-Fi.
A base station installed on the ceiling of a room would project light toward the computer and also receive data heading out from the computer to the Internet. To get the light beam exactly where it needs to go, the team uses holographic beam steering at both the transmitter and receiver ends.
The team notes it is important to use transceivers with a wide field of view to make the alignment task easier, particularly because the device relies on wavelength division multiplexing, which splits the signal into slightly different colors of light. The diffraction grating of the beam steerer bends each wavelength a different amount. With a 60-degree field of view, the team transmitted six different wavelengths, each at 37.4 Gbps for an aggregate bandwidth of 224 Gbps.
The next step is to develop a tracking and location system so a user could place a laptop at a random spot on a table and have the system find it and create a link.
From IEEE Spectrum
View Full Article
Abstracts Copyright © 2015 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA
No entries found