Communications of the ACM
Light Packing More Data Has Potential to Increase Bandwidth By 100 Times
Researchers at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits University) and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research have demonstrated a way to potentially boost bandwidth 100-fold by using more than 100 patterns of light in an optical communicatio
Credit: University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa)
Researchers at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits University) and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research are seeking alternative solutions to replace traditional optical communications systems about to hit a bandwidth limitation.
They have demonstrated a way to potentially boost bandwidth 100-fold by using more than 100 patterns of light in an optical communication link.
Light possesses a pattern formed by its intensity distribution, and the researchers say the uniqueness of the patterns enables them to be used to encode information. Their research leverages three degrees of freedom, and in the first step the researchers used digital holograms written to a small liquid-crystal display to demonstrate the possibility of having a hologram encoded with more than 100 patterns in multiple hues. The device was rendered "color blind" so the same holograms could be employed to encode many wavelengths.
"One hundred holograms were combined into a single, complex hologram," says Wits School of Physics' Carmelo Rosales-Guzman. "Moreover, each sub-hologram was individually tailored to correct for any optical aberrations due to the color difference, angular offset, and so on."
Wits University professor Andrew Forbes says the next step is to collaborate with a private-sector firm to develop a real-world demonstration of the technology.
From University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa)
View Full Article
Abstracts Copyright © 2016 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA
No entries found