Scientists realize wireless data connection of 32Gbit/s

Scientists from the University of Southern California have established a data connection that runs via radio waves and achieves a speed of 32Gbit/s. According to the researchers, it is one of the fastest connections ever achieved via radio waves.

The research was led by Alan Willner, a professor of electrical engineering at USC. He and his team were able to establish a data connection of 32Gbit/s via radio waves. The experiment took place in a cellar, without obstacles and over a distance of 2.5 meters. According to the researchers, the speed has rarely been achieved in such a way and he gives as an example that it is enough to send more than ten HD films of 1.5 hours in a second.

For the experiment, four radio beams were connected and ‘rotated’. Each beam contained its own load of information. A spiral phase plate then transformed each beam into a unique spiral shape, similar to that of DNA. At the end of the connection, a receiver untangled the streams and decoded them back into usable information.

Incidentally, it is by no means the highest wireless connection speed that has ever been achieved. In 2012, Willner headed a team that transmitted data via beams of light using a similar concept. Speeds of about 2.56 Tbit/s were then achieved. According to Willner, the advantage of radio waves is that they are wider and more robust, and therefore less vulnerable to obstacles and other interruptions.

Willner and his colleagues describe the research in the most recent issue of Nature Communications.