Researchers develop record-speed wireless data bridge

digital communications across challenging terrain and into remote areas, commonly referred to as the "last mile" problem, Science Daily says.

The researchers developed a record-speed wireless data bridge that transmits digital information much faster than today's state-of-the-art systems.

These unprecedented speeds - up to 20 billion bits of data per second - were achieved using higher frequencies than those typically used in mobile communications - the wireless bridge operates at 200GHz (two orders of magnitude greater than cellphone frequencies).

The set-up sees the optical fibre infrastructure used up to its ending point and then connected to a wireless gateway, The Inquirer reports.

This gateway converts the optical data to electrical millimetre-wave signals that feed an antenna. The transmitting antenna "illuminates" a corresponding receiving antenna. At the receiving point, the electrical signal is directed towards its final destination, either using another wireless channel in a relay technique via copper wire or a coaxial TV cable, or with an optical fibre.

A major issue in integrating a wireless link into a fibre-optic environment is to ensure that the wireless link supports data rates comparable to those of the optical link - ideally about 100Gbps, according to Igmar Kallfass, a researcher and the project's leader at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics IAF.