10Gbps Wireless Transfers
Erasei writes "NTT Science and Core Technology Laboratory Group has developed a wireless communications that is capable of transmitting data at speeds of up to 10Gbps. In order to achieve such high data transmission speeds, the system uses the as-yet-unused 120GHz frequency band. The actual bandwidth the system uses is 17GHz, and the method of modulation employed is amplitude shift keying."
In order to extend the range of the transmission, a 20cm-diameter lens was used to focus the beam. In the laboratory, a 10m range for the system has been confirmed, but NTT is expecting to try and extend the range to 100m
From a scientific standpoint, this is somewhat interesting. I don't see it being news, however, until they seriosuly decrease the size of the transmitters and/or increase the range. The transmitters look to be about the size of a shoebox, which is great for building-to-building, but let us know when they actually bump up the range to say... building-to-building distances.
That's what I want to know. IR is way up in the THz range. You outta be able to modulate a least a Gbps onto it easily. Sure, it wouldn't go very far but so what. Is it just the difficulty in making emitters and detecters which are fast enough? That can't really be that hard. A gige optical SX GBIC module can be had for under $100. Hm. That makes me want to tear a couple apart and see if I can get a link running across a few feet of free space.