Record-speed wireless data bridge demonstrated

A team of researchers in Germany has created a new way to overcome many of the issues associated with bringing high-speed digital communications across challenging terrain and into remote areas, commonly referred to as the “last mile” problem. The researchers developed a record-speed wireless data bridge that transmits digital information much faster than today’s state-of-the-art systems. Multi-gigabit wireless transmission demands multi-GHz bandwidths, which are only available at much larger frequencies than mobile communications normally use; millimeter-wave frequencies -- radio frequencies in the range of 30-300 GHz -- fulfill this need. These unprecedented speeds, up to 20 billion bits of data per second, were achieved by using higher frequencies than those typically used in mobile communications -- the wireless bridge operates at 200 gigahertz (GHz) (two orders of magnitude greater than cell phone frequencies). The team will present their research at the Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition/National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference, taking place March 4-8 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.