Future mobile networks may be able to transmit data faster by using a wider range of frequencies.
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Wireless data will be transmitted at 938 gigabits per second, or more than 9000 times the average speed of current 5G phone connections. This is equivalent to downloading more than 20 average-length movies per second. This speed is a multiplex data recording where two or more signals are mixed.
Large gatherings such as concerts and sports games, as well as crowded train stations, place heavy demands on wireless signals and often cause cell phone networks to go down. This is primarily due to the limited bandwidth on which 5G networks operate. The portion of the electromagnetic spectrum currently allocated to 5G networks varies by country, but generally occupies relatively low frequencies below 6 gigahertz, and only narrow frequency bands thereafter.
Zhixin Liu and colleagues at University College London used radio waves and light to increase transmission speeds over a wider range of frequencies than previous experiments of this kind, from 5 gigahertz to 150 gigahertz.
Currently, digital-to-analog converters are used to send zeros and ones into the air over radio waves, but higher frequencies present difficulties, Liu said. So his team used that technology for the lower part of the range, a different technique using lasers for the upper part, and combined both with hardware that could be integrated into next-generation smartphones. We have created broadband data that can be used.
This enabled the team to wirelessly transmit data at 938 Gb/s, more than 9000 times the average 5G download speed in the UK. This allows individuals to benefit from huge data rates for applications not yet thought of, and it also allows large groups to have enough bandwidth to stream video.
Although this is a multiplexed data record, the transmission rate of a single signal is over 1 terabits per second.
Splitting the signal into a wide frequency range is like turning the “narrow, congested road” of today’s 5G networks into a “10-car highway,” Liu said. “Just like with transportation, we need wider roads to carry more cars.”
Liu said his group is in talks with smartphone manufacturers and network operators and hopes future 6G technology will be based on this research, but other approaches in development are also vying for position. He said that
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