James Delahunty
19 May 2012 20:00
Japanese researchers achieve very high speed using terahertz band.
They managed to hit a data rate roughly twenty times higher than the best that can be achieved with Wi-Fi, using the unregulated terahertz (or T-Ray) bands. The band makes use of the 300GHz to about 3THz frequencies.
The Tokyo Institute of Technology researchers, demonstrated 3Gbps transmission at 542GHz using a wireless radio no bigger than a 10-yen coin (about the size of a British penny coin). They suspect that they could push the speed up to about 100Gbps.
The next generation 802.11ac standard, which hasn't been approved yet by IEEE, can offer speeds theoretically as high as 1.3Gbps with three antennas, though the maximum achieved in tests so far was closer to 800Mbps.
The proposed 802.11ad standard (WiGig) could theoretically manage 10Gbps data rates, but generally only within line of sight range.
While the T-Ray bands do offer some promise, they will only be useful over short ranges, which could make them useful for server farms or data centers where they can cut down the amount of wiring.