Fanning the flames that fired me
|
|
|
Boffins invent time telescope
WHITE COATS at Cornell University have demonstrated a photon-based system that has the potential to squeeze more data into packets sent over the Internet.
Discussed first in the journal Nature Photonics, the device can focus light pulses in time, as opposed to space. By doing this it should be able to increase the amount of data sent in packets quite dramatically.
According to the BBC, a prototype device boosted the data rate of photon pulses by 27 times. It reported that "temporal lenses that can squash comparatively long pulses in time" were employed to jam an image of a standard 10GHz pulse into much a shorter one.
The introduction to the research explains, "We generate waveforms with 1.5 [picosecond] minimum features by compressing lower-bandwidth replicas created with a 10 GHz electro-optic modulator. In effect, our device allows for ultrahigh-speed direct 270 GHz modulation using relatively low speed devices and represents a new class of ultrafast waveform generators."
So why has no one thought of this before? The results of the University's experimentation in photonic data transfers even surprised Cornell University's Mark Foster, the bloke who came up with it.
"The most surprising thing for me was seeing it all work," he told the BBC. µ
Share this:
Share
The comparison with guitar sounds was a poor choice, since electromagnetic waves do not necessarily behave similar to sound waves.
But an optical pulse will have numerous frequency components, just like A.C.
There is rarely any frequency conversion/change in optical communications, since there are actually just a couple of common/standard frequencies used, which are dictated by the materials used for optical fibres.
The article was just so hard to understand.
But from what I've read elsewhere, I believe the analogy would be to say that optical messages are sent as pulses, like switching a flashlight on and then off again.
This "compressing" simply means switching it on and off a lot quicker and thus cramming more data in.
The Cornell people must have used good expensive lab equipment to measure the output at the other end, which is why we won't see this in operation in a good while.
Now I can send myself messages to my own computer letting me know that I need to change the variable of type int to byte on line 37 and save me an hour of searching.
Oh. Just got a message. It seems my boss was waiting to lay me off right after I finished the project.
Wrote Commentos' yesterday, it posted & Now Disco peared. yet heres actual article above was written from:
http://www.technologyreview.com/communications/23535/?nlid=2399
Notice that idea is based on idea that striking three guitar string at same time makes three sounds, Its dosn't. Three harmonic Waves Collide into One harmonic Wave that is congruante with Averaged frequency & amplitudes.
So Its Still NEW StinK o'meter, Not Slow waves turn into bunch o' Fastees'.
DRASHEK
Both Ken and SV Guy are correct. The Cornell 'discovery' only compresses the pulses so the resultant pulse train has an 'apparent' modulation of 27x the original, but you would need to time-multiplex 27 streams to garner the full benefit.
This is an outcome of their research into electromagnetic propagation slowing techniques, i.e., slowing or stopping a beam of light.
This man IS the venerable DRASHeK
"We generate waveforms with 1.5 [picosecond] minimum features by compressing lower-bandwidth replicas created with a 10 GHz electro-optic modulator. In effect, our device allows for ultrahigh-speed direct 270 GHz modulation using relatively low speed devices and represents a new class of ultrafast waveform generators."
Or do i need more coffee.
If you had many (say, 27) 10GHz data streams, then you could time-multiplex the resulting 270GHz upconverted streams onto a single fiber. Unfortunately, this article doesn't tell how to pull them apart on the other end!
Come on Inquirer, stop reprinting BBC articles that were already incredibly poorly explained and do your own research. "Time telescope"? Oh please...
Can't work as described.
The 'time lens' receives data at a rate of 10 Ghz, and sends data at a rate of 270 Ghz.
It can't send data faster than it receives it.
... Maybe it's buffering the data and sending it out as a package at the higher rate. At best it will take as long as the original data rate, but perhaps it has the benefit of occupying the downstream bandwidth for less time
ah TM, it's not a flux capacitor
it's a field modulation phase inverter used to squeeze tight the sexy buffer of Tpol through time and space
Allen Telescope Array go thingies
"We generate waveforms with 1.5 [picosecond] minimum features by compressing lower-bandwidth replicas created with a 10 GHz electro-optic modulator. In effect, our device allows for ultrahigh-speed direct 270 GHz modulation using relatively low speed devices and represents a new class of ultrafast waveform generators."
So why has no one thought of this before?
---------------------------------
I still haven't thought of it as I have no idea what all that means.
All I got out of it was,"Holy cow, we can upload stuff blazingly fast!!!111ONEONEONE"
"The results of the University's experimentation in photonic data transfers even surprised Cornell University's Mark Foster, the bloke who came up with it.
"The most surprising thing for me was seeing it all work," he told the BBC."
:-) But you knew it would, Mark, I'd wager.
It's obviously a Flux Capacitor...
Can anyone shed light on what this temporal lens is?