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Welsh Scientists Radically Increase Fiber Broadband Speeds With COTS Parts

Posted by timothy on from the believe-it-when-it-appears-in-your-home dept.

Mark.JUK writes "Scientists working under an EU funded (3 Million Euros) project out of Bangor University in Wales (United Kingdom) have developed a commercially-exploitable way of boosting broadband speeds over end-user fibre optic lines by using Optical Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OOFDM) technology, which splits a laser down to multiple different optical frequencies (each of which can be used to carry data), and low-cost off-the-shelf components. The scientists claim that their solution has the ability to 'increase broadband transmission by up to two thousand times the current speed and capacity' (most UK Fibre-to-the-Home or similar services currently offer less than 100 Megabits per second) and it can do this alongside a 'significant reduction in electrical power consumption.'"

7 of 72 comments (clear)

  1. But we won't get it because... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ... BT are bloody useless!

    1. Re:But we won't get it because... by L4t3r4lu5 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's not incompetence in this instance; It is actually malice. BT would much rather hold on to this tech for the next 15 years, squeezing an extra few pounds per month out of you for the next tier of service, right up until you're paying more for your internet connection than you are for your mortgage.

      Consider; The identical fibre with this new tech is all of a sudden 2000x times less efficient than it could be. Do you think you'll be charged 1/2000 of the current rate if it's implemented and you elect not to use it?

      (I realise there is more to this, like switching overhead, backbone speed, contention etc).

      --
      Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
    2. Re:But we won't get it because... by TheMathemagician · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's not a perfect market though because one company (British Telecom) inherited all the copper wiring joining people's homes to the network even though it was originally publicly funded through the Post Office before BT existed as a commercial company. Now they charge you a line rental even if you use a different ISP (as if they could rent that specific piece of wire to anyone else). Some areas of the UK are cabled up and you can avoid this nonsense but I was recently informed that my flat (=apartment) could not access cable despite the fact it's on a main road in West London. The cost of physically drilling through concrete and laying cables is way way beyond the budget of small ISPs so you're stuck piggybacking on BT lines.

  2. Re:Where is end-user fiber optics the capacity lim by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    What is this 'fiber' you speak of? Sounds like an interesting tech.

  3. Not DWDM, this is something else. by vlm · · Score: 4, Interesting

    which splits a laser down to multiple different optical frequencies

    No no no thats just WDM for DWDM. Imagine a piece of glass fiber with prisms on each end and separate red, green, blue, etc lasers and detectors. They (can) operate completely independently. You can do the same thing with RF and NTSC signals... its call old fashioned analog cable TV.

    OOFDM is like hyper close packed DWDM and usually made out of different tech. Some games are played to eliminate ISI and crosstalk, assuming the gear is working properly, perfectly linear, etc. Maybe a cruddy analogy would be kinda like two voice signals in one DSB carrier, or another cruddy analogy is its plain ole DSL FDM except coordinated so the FDM slices don't/can't interfere with each other and the leading O means its optical.

    For RF this is "old" stuff like from the 90s. For optical this is pretty impressive and new. Same concept just a couple orders of magnitude higher frequency.

    The wikipedia article is not so bad

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthogonal_frequency-division_multiplexing

    low-cost off-the-shelf components

    HA HA yeah maybe thats in the grant proposal as a goal, or its low cost compared to installing another length of fiber... Its not gonna be low cost as in I could do it in my basement using parts from an old laser printer, or you'll be buying a fiber "ethernet switch" using it for $9.95. It is probably going to be lower-cost compared to any previous design, which IS cool.

    --
    "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
  4. Gareth Edwards by Hognoxious · · Score: 5, Funny

    Unfortunately Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch exceeds the maximum packet size and causes the router to c*@
    ! n o
    c a r r i e r

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  5. Re:Where is end-user fiber optics the capacity lim by LongearedBat · · Score: 5, Funny

    Fiber helps computer systems digest data better. This is done by helping information travel towards the end point instead of getting stuck and clogging up the system.