The science people have been at it again, doing their sciencing, and this time they’ve gone and proved that wireless speeds can be even speedier than the already-speedy speeds we’re used to. Over 9,000-times faster, in fact.
Some nerds over at University College London (UCL) have set a new wireless transfer speed record by combining all-electronic and optical (“optoelectronic”) methods. The ultimate end-result is a wireless transfer speed of 938 Gbps. And I’m sure, like me, you probably consider that a bit of a failure. Seriously, they couldn’t push a little harder and crack the 1,000 Gbps barrier? So close and yet so far.
Still, that’s 117.25 GB/s which, if translated directly into an actual data transfer, would mean you’d be able to download all 130~ GB of Black Myth: Wukong in about 1.1 seconds. If they’d broken 1,000 Gbps that would be 125 GB/s, and Black Myth: Wukong could be downloaded in 1.04 seconds. And if we’re rounding down that means 1 second, right?
The 938 Gbps the researchers achieved is also, as UCL says, “up to 9,380 times faster than the best average 5G download speed in the UK, which is currently 100 Megabits per second (Mb/s) or over.” Or, as I like to call it, “still not 1,000 Gbps”.
Setting aside the needless ragging on the techie folk, this is seriously impressive. If you’re interested in the technical details you can check out the research paper, but UCL gives a simple explanation, as follows.
“Typically, wireless networks transmit information using radio waves over a narrow range of frequencies. Current wireless transmission methods, such as Wi-Fi and 5G mobile, predominantly operate at low frequencies below 6 GHz.
“But congestion in this frequency range has limited the speed of wireless communications.
“Researchers from UCL Electronic & Electrical Engineering overcame this bottleneck by transmitting information through a much wider range of radio frequencies by combining both radio and optical technologies for the first time.”
It’s all electromagnetic waves, after all—everything’s on the same radio spectrum. It’s all photons grooving out at different frequencies, but different bands of frequencies have to be approached differently.
Two bands, one around 100 GHz and the other between 130–175 GHz, were able to be used together by ensuring a stable carrier signal. This was ensured by using a quartz oscillator—you know, the same thing that regulates a PC’s stable clock speed.
The senior author of the study, Dr Zhixin Liu, explains: “Our new approach combines two existing wireless technologies for the first time, high-speed electronics and millimetre wave photonics, to [overcome] these barriers. This new system allows for the transmission of large amounts of data at unprecedented speeds, which will be crucial for the future of wireless communications.”
The ultimate end-result, while impressive on the speed front, will more likely instead allow for more people to achieve faster—but not 938 Gbps levels of faster—speeds simultaneously. The fact this is multiplex data could mean that 6G will allow for more simultaneous signal and band uses. This would mean more bandwidth for easier throughput.
Which could ultimately mean a leap towards wireless connectivity that could actually work as a replacement for traditional cable or fibre broadband. Let’s work at cracking that 1,000 Gbps barrier though, shall we? Y’know, we like big round numbers and all that.
