Luther12
Elder Lister
Invisible beams of light are targeted onto two-inch receivers that are miles away.
High speed internet transmitted by lasers.
While SpaceX continues to send off more satellites to space in order to complete its Starlink constellation, there are many questions that are still unanswered about the service performance and affordability. Earlier this year, Google's parent company, Alphabet killed off a similar project named Loon that it had been working on for years. But, recently, an offshoot from Loon called Project Taara, used lasers to stream 700TB of data through open-air, a project blog post said.
Picking up from where Loon left off, Project Taara's core mission stays the same: offering reliable and affordable internet across the board. While they have learned that helium balloons are not a cost-effective way, the lasers they planned to use for Loon can still play an important role. In a system called Free Space Optical Communications (FSOC), the lasers can be used to communicate between two points that have a clear line of sight, The Verge reported.
The hardware includes pointing and tracking beacons that beam light to each other across distance
The Congo pilot aimed at solving a very local problem of a connectivity gap between two regions, Brazzaville and Kinshasa, just three miles (4.8 km) apart but with a 5X difference in the cost of accessing the internet. The reason is the world's deepest river, Congo, that flows between them forcing fiber-optic cables to make a 248-mile (400 km) journey to link up the two.
After setting up FSOC, the Project Taara team managed to transfer over 700 TB of data in 20 days with a 99.9 percent availability. Since the internet is already
available in the region, the team was able to compare its performance and even switched data transmission between conventional fiber-optic cable and its own system, without affecting user experience, the team told Verge.
The blog post further explains how by using atmospheric sensing, mirror controls, and motion detection capabilities, the team has been able to transmit the invisible laser beam that is about the width of a chopstick using receivers that just is no bigger than two inches (5 cm). Although weather conditions and disruptions from wild animals can affect reliability, the team is confident of being able to deliver reliable and high-speed internet to most parts of the world.
The wireless optical communications (WOC) system provided nearly 700 terabytes of data in 20 days with 99.9% availability, the team at X reported.
"While we don't expect to see perfect reliability in all kinds of weather and conditions in future, we're confident Taara's links will continue to deliver similar performance and will play a key role in bringing fast, more affordable connectivity to the 17 million people living in these cities," it said in the blog.
It is the latest iteration of the project which has been in development for three years. X is working with Econet Group and Liquid Telecom to bring high-speed internet to sub-Saharan Africa and has begun a commercial rollout in Kenya.
The system uses very narrow, invisible beams of light to deliver high speeds, similar to the way traditional fibre in the ground uses light to carry data but without the cable casing.
The technology, known as Free Space Optical Communications, grew out of experiments the team had previously used to beam lasers between balloons in Project Loon, which was shut down by Alphabet in February because it was no longer seen as commercially viable.
It is not perfect and the team admits it will not offer full reliability in challenging conditions, such as fog, haze or when birds fly in front of the signal.
But it has been improved by adjusting the level of laser power being transmitted, which works a bit like a telescope, relying on mirrors, lights, software and hardware to move the beam to exactly where it needs to be. The team have also found ways to reduce errors due to interruptions such as birds flying through the link.
"While places like foggy San Francisco may never be an ideal spot to use WOC, there are many, many places around the world with ideal weather conditions for Taara's links," the blog read. The technology has also be trialled in Kenya, India, the US and Mexico.
High speed internet transmitted by lasers.
While SpaceX continues to send off more satellites to space in order to complete its Starlink constellation, there are many questions that are still unanswered about the service performance and affordability. Earlier this year, Google's parent company, Alphabet killed off a similar project named Loon that it had been working on for years. But, recently, an offshoot from Loon called Project Taara, used lasers to stream 700TB of data through open-air, a project blog post said.
Picking up from where Loon left off, Project Taara's core mission stays the same: offering reliable and affordable internet across the board. While they have learned that helium balloons are not a cost-effective way, the lasers they planned to use for Loon can still play an important role. In a system called Free Space Optical Communications (FSOC), the lasers can be used to communicate between two points that have a clear line of sight, The Verge reported.
The hardware includes pointing and tracking beacons that beam light to each other across distance
The Congo pilot aimed at solving a very local problem of a connectivity gap between two regions, Brazzaville and Kinshasa, just three miles (4.8 km) apart but with a 5X difference in the cost of accessing the internet. The reason is the world's deepest river, Congo, that flows between them forcing fiber-optic cables to make a 248-mile (400 km) journey to link up the two.
After setting up FSOC, the Project Taara team managed to transfer over 700 TB of data in 20 days with a 99.9 percent availability. Since the internet is already
available in the region, the team was able to compare its performance and even switched data transmission between conventional fiber-optic cable and its own system, without affecting user experience, the team told Verge.
The blog post further explains how by using atmospheric sensing, mirror controls, and motion detection capabilities, the team has been able to transmit the invisible laser beam that is about the width of a chopstick using receivers that just is no bigger than two inches (5 cm). Although weather conditions and disruptions from wild animals can affect reliability, the team is confident of being able to deliver reliable and high-speed internet to most parts of the world.
The wireless optical communications (WOC) system provided nearly 700 terabytes of data in 20 days with 99.9% availability, the team at X reported.
"While we don't expect to see perfect reliability in all kinds of weather and conditions in future, we're confident Taara's links will continue to deliver similar performance and will play a key role in bringing fast, more affordable connectivity to the 17 million people living in these cities," it said in the blog.
It is the latest iteration of the project which has been in development for three years. X is working with Econet Group and Liquid Telecom to bring high-speed internet to sub-Saharan Africa and has begun a commercial rollout in Kenya.
The system uses very narrow, invisible beams of light to deliver high speeds, similar to the way traditional fibre in the ground uses light to carry data but without the cable casing.
The technology, known as Free Space Optical Communications, grew out of experiments the team had previously used to beam lasers between balloons in Project Loon, which was shut down by Alphabet in February because it was no longer seen as commercially viable.
It is not perfect and the team admits it will not offer full reliability in challenging conditions, such as fog, haze or when birds fly in front of the signal.
But it has been improved by adjusting the level of laser power being transmitted, which works a bit like a telescope, relying on mirrors, lights, software and hardware to move the beam to exactly where it needs to be. The team have also found ways to reduce errors due to interruptions such as birds flying through the link.
"While places like foggy San Francisco may never be an ideal spot to use WOC, there are many, many places around the world with ideal weather conditions for Taara's links," the blog read. The technology has also be trialled in Kenya, India, the US and Mexico.
