On the heels of BT offering to invest in the
infrastructure needed to bring high-speed internet to those Britons who do not
yet have it, researchers have announced the possibility of current technology
becoming obsolete within a short amount of time. We aren't talking high-speed
Internet any more. We're not even talking superfast. Instead, we are now
looking at ultrafast speeds measured in gigabytes rather than megabytes.
Ultrafast wi-fi has been on the radar for quite some time
now. Until recently though, making it happen has remained somewhat of a
mystery. That mystery may have been solved by switching from traditional
microwaves to terahertz. Researchers at Brown University School of Engineering
in Providence, Rhode Island (USA) have demonstrated they can "transmit
separate data streams on terahertz waves at very high speeds and with very low
error rates," according a report on the Telegraph website.
"This is the first time anybody has characterised a
terahertz multiplex system using actual data," the researcher said in an
official statement, "and our results show that our approach could be
viable in future terahertz wireless networks."
What It Means to You
If you don't know the difference between a microwave and a
terahertz, you are not alone. Here's what it means to you in simple terms:
ultrafast internet access that could be upwards of 100 times faster than the
best high-speed service now available. We are looking at speeds of 50 GB per
second as opposed to 500 MB per second, the highest speed available with
state-of-the-art microwave technology.
If science is successful in developing terahertz
applications, the implications of the new technology would be incredible. First
and foremost, terahertz networks would bring to an end the very real danger of
outstripping microwave capacity with current high-speed applications.
Secondly, we would be able to develop platforms capable of
much higher data densities. Terahertz waves operate at higher frequencies than
microwaves and higher frequencies means more data packed into the same stream.
Thirdly, a successful venture into terahertz technology
would mean high definition streaming on-the-go for everything from live
television to superfast data crunching for banks, businesses and other large
consumers of data. That alone would do wonders for worldwide financial markets.
Proving It Works
Proof-of-concept experiments out of Brown University
involved two HD television broadcasts that were encoded on two different
terahertz frequencies and then sent out across a wi-fi network together.
Researchers obtained error-free results at 10 GB per second. Errors were only
slight at 50 GB per second and well within the range of standard error
correction systems.
From high-speed to superfast to ultrafast, the speeds at
which we can send data through the air will only be going up over the next
several years. Imagine a wi-fi connection 100 times faster than you currently
use. It is possible through terahertz; at least in principle. Now it is up to
scientists to make terahertz technology viable for the mass market. It appears
as though they are very much on course.
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