Scientists Demonstrate 2.56 TBS Data Transmission Using Light

Scientists Demonstrate 2.56 TBS Data Transmission Using Light

A multi-national team of scientists has developed a system of transmitting data using twisted beams of light, demonstrating transmission rates of up to 2.56 terabits per second.
The data transmission rates are 85,000 times faster than the 30 MBPS transmission rates typically available at homes using broadband cable.
The team was led by Alan Willner, electrical engineering professor at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. The research was published in Nature Photonics on June 24.
"You're able to do things with light that you can't do with electricity," says Willner. "That's the beauty of light; it's a bunch of photons that can be manipulated in many different ways at very high speed."
Willner and his colleagues used beam-twisting "phase holograms" to manipulate eight beams of light so that each one twisted in a DNA-like helical shape as it propagated in free space. Each of the beams had its own individual twist and can be encoded with "1" and "0" data bits, making each an independent data stream – much like separate channels on your radio.
They demonstrated the concept by transmitting data over open space in a lab, simulating transmission between ground stations and satellites in space.
Future research would aim at demonstrating the same concept using fiber optics, simulating data transmission over the internet.
The team's work builds on past research by Leslie Allen, Anton Zeilinger, Miles Padgett and their colleagues at several European universities.
"We didn't invent the twisting of light, but we took the concept and ramped it up to a terabit-per-second," Willner said. His team included Jian Wang, Jeng-Yuan Yang, Irfan M. Fazal, Nisar Ahmed, Yan Yan, Hao Huang, Yongxiong Ren and Yang Yue from USC; Samuel Dolinar from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory; and Moshe Tur from Tel Aviv University