"Twisted" OAM Beams Carry 2.5 Terabits Per Second

MrSeb writes "American and Israeli researchers have used twisted, vortex beams to transmit data at 2.5 terabits per second. As far as I can discern, this is the fastest wireless network ever created — by some margin. These twisted signals use orbital angular momentum (OAM) to cram much more data into a single stream, without using more spectrum. In current state-of-the-art transmission protocols (WiFi, LTE, COFDM), we only modulate the spin angular momentum (SAM) of radio waves, not the OAM. If you picture the Earth, SAM is our planet spinning on its axis, while OAM is our movement around the Sun. Basically, the breakthrough here is that researchers have created a wireless network protocol that uses both OAM and SAM. In this case, Alan Willner and fellow researchers from the University of Southern California, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Tel Aviv University, twisted together eight ~300Gbps visible light data streams using OAM. For the networking nerds, Willner's OAM link has a spectral efficiency of 95.7 bits per hertz; LTE maxes out at 16.32 bits/Hz; 802.11n is 2.4 bits/Hz. Digital TV (DVB-T) is just 0.55 bits/Hz. In short, this might just be exactly what our congested wireless spectrum needs."

Comments

Re:I do not like green eggs and ham

[alphatel]

First, they twisted my ARM, then they twisted my Ethernet, now they're twisting my wireless. I shall twist no more!

speed is intoxicating isn't it

[P-niiice]

Cool! I can hit my monthly cap in .0001 seconds!

Re:Will it be practical?

[Anonymous Coward]

Remember the IR data port fad? Thank Jebus THAT never took off. Not for lack of hype, either...

Re:OAM Beam

[Anonymous Coward]

Let us root, root, root for the OAM beam,
If they don't spin it's a shame.
For it's one, two, three terabits,
In a per second frame."