5G networks have made us numerous promises of what is to come: from a greater and broader connection, the arrival of the Internet of Things (IoT), to Higher connection speeds. Much higher.
A team of researchers from University College London (UCL) has achieved a new world record in wireless transmissionwhich promises faster and more reliable wireless communications.
The team has managed to send data over the air at a speed of 938 gigabits per second (Gb/s) in a record frequency range of 5-150 gigahertz (GHz). This speed is up to 9,380 times faster than the best average 5G download speed: currently 100 megabits per second (Mb/s) or more1. The total bandwidth of 145 GHz is more than five times the previous wireless transmission world record.
Typically, wireless networks transmit information using radio waves in a narrow range of frequencies. Current wireless transmission methods, such as Wi-Fi and 5G mobile telephony, operate predominantly at low frequencies below 6 GHz. But congestion in this Frequency range has limited the speed of wireless communications.
UCL scientists overcame this bottleneck transmitting information over a much wider range of radio frequencies, combining radio and optical technologies for the first time. The results are described in a study published in The Journal of Lightwave Technology.
This more efficient use of wireless spectrum is expected to help meet the growing demand for wireless data capacity and speed over the next three to five years.
“Current wireless communication systems struggle to keep up with the growing demand for high-speed data access, with capacity in the last few meters between the user and the fiber optic network that holds us back – explains Zhixin Liu, leader of the study. -. Our solution is use more available frequencies to increase bandwidthwhile maintaining high signal quality and providing flexibility to access different frequency resources. This results in super-fast and reliable wireless networks, overcoming the speed bottleneck between user terminals and the Internet. “Our new approach combines for the first time two existing wireless technologies – high-speed electronics and millimeter wave photonics – to overcome these barriers.”
The new technology developed by UCL has the potential to revolutionize several sectorsparticularly the Wi-Fi connectivity that people depend on at home and in other public places.
Mobile phone users can expect faster internet speeds and more stable connections, with 5G and later 6G networks powered by this type of system. This would allow more people to use the network in densely populated urban environments or at large events such as concerts without experiencing slowdowns, or providing the same number of users with much faster speeds.
For example, a two-hour 4k Ultra HD movie (around 14GB of data) would take 19 minutes to download over 5G at 100Mb/s. With new technology, could be downloaded in just 0.12 seconds.