CSIRO to Demonstrate Super Wireless Link

By Greg McNevin

December 5th, 2006: In a world first, researchers from the CSIRO will be demonstrating what they claim is the world’s fastest and most efficient point-to-point wireless link this week.

The technology will mark a substantial step forward for wireless technology which, while increasing in popularity and general use, is being left far behind by modern multi-gigabit links.

According to the CSIRO, a one gigabit per second link enables the entire works of Shakespeare to be transferred in four hundredths of a second, or a full DVD movie in 34 seconds.

While it has not parted with numbers outlining the bandwidth capabilities of its new technology, the CSIRO team says that during the demonstration it will transmit 16 simultaneous streams of DVD quality video over a 250 metre link with no loss of quality or delays.

The team claims that this example will only soak up one tenth of the link’s true capacity.

“The system is suitable for situations where a high speed link is needed but it is too expensive or logistically difficult to lay fibre - such as in congested urban environments, and across valleys and rivers,” said Dr Jay Guo, Director of the Wireless Technologies Laboratory at CSIRO. “The system is also ideal for creating networks to meet short term needs such as emergencies and large events.”

Disaster scenarios aside, the technology sounds like a bandwidth challenge to the BitTorrent community would be eager to take up. With improving wireless networking and even wireless power being discussed in tech circles, increasingly mobile data will empower many businesses. Provided of course, they have formidable security and disaster recovery solutions in place.

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