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Wired and Wireless At the Same High Speed

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the zoom dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "The next generation of optical networks needed to satisfy our appetite for bandwidth is currently under development. And researchers from Georgia Tech have built a new architecture which delivers super-broadband wired and wireless service simultaneously. This hybrid system 'could allow dual wired/wireless transmission up to 100 times faster than current networks.' In fact, this optical-wireless network can carry as many as 32 different channels, each providing 2.5 gigabit-per-second service to your home or your office. And companies such as NEC and BellSouth are already working on such hybrid optical-wireless communications networks."

6 of 110 comments (clear)

  1. WiMAX? by Landak · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Is this going to be the successor to Intel's somewhat vapourware "WiMAX" project - or is it this in all but name?

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    1. Re:WiMAX? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      WiMAX isn't vapourware. It's just been officially approved and commercial products are starting to hit the shelves

  2. Re:catch? by TubeSteak · · Score: 4, Interesting
    From TFA:
    amplified for short-range wireless transmission at frequencies of 40 to 60 gigahertz.
    Anyone want to comment on how useful a 40~60 GHz signal is outside of a relatively controlled environment?
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  3. weather? by j1m+5n0w · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This sounds like free space optics, which in bad weather is only reliable over short distances. This could very well be interesting technology, but my enthusiasm will remain subdued until I hear how well it performs through, say, several hundred meters of thick fog.

  4. WiMAX is for long-range communication by j1m+5n0w · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Wimax is for city-sized networks. I wouldn't expect this new technology to work well over long distances or in bad weather; one of the articles indicated they were using milimeter-wavelength frequencies, which puts it somewhere around 100Ghz, which is stopped by water vapor. Wimax uses much lower frequencies (with correspondingly lower data throughput) that can (to some limited extend) go around corners and penetrate fog and rain.

  5. Woooooohoo!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    It will take another 40 years before that high speed network will be available in the good ol USA

    Meanwhile, Japan is getting 100Mbits/sec at $30/month