A twist of light makes broadband speeds faster

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• Researchers twist eight beams into DNA-like helix structure
• Achieved transmission speeds of 2.56 terabits a second
• NBN Co wouldn't say whether they plan to adopt technology

SCIENTISTS have found a way to transmit data 85,000 times faster than current broadband speeds by twisting beams of light.

Researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) twisted eight beams into a DNA-like helix structure, each encoded with one and zero data bits to create independent data streams.
The experiment achieved transmission speeds of 2.56 terabits a second – up from current US broadband speeds of 30 megabits a second, Gizmag reported.
Alan Willner, electrical engineering professor at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, said the team simulated the sort of communications that might happen in space but the developments could also be used on earth.
"You're able to do things with light that you can't do with electricity," Willner said.
“We didn’t invent the twisting of light, but we took the concept and ramped it up to a terabit-per-second.”
Though it didn't quite beat Germany's researcher’s record last year of 26 terabits per second, the scientists said the experiments proved that we can do way more with light than was previously thought.
In Australia, NBN Co would not say whether they planned to adopt the technology, however they said the experiments show why the NBN is the “right solution for Australia’s future”.
"As transmission technology for fibre, fixed wireless and satellite improves, the amount of data that can be carried over the NBN will increase dramatically over time," an NBN spokesperson said.

A twist of light makes broadband speeds faster | Space, Military and Medicine | News.com.au

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