A team of researchers has developed a technique which uses mirror images signals to dramatically increase the accuracy—and speed—of data transmission across the internet.


The team explain in Nature Photonics how it's possible to send not one but two beams of light down a fiber cable: one the normal data signal, the other its mirror image—or, more accurately its phase conjugate. At the other end of the cable it's possible to recombine the signals in such a way that errors caused by noise in the signals is cancelled out.

The trick works in much the same way as noise-cancelling headphones, and crucially means that data can be transmitted much further before it becomes corrupted by interference. In fact, the paired beams are able to travel four times further than normal data streams, and the team has so far managed to achieve speed of 400Gb/s down 12,800km of optical fibre.


As ever, while it sounds like a wonderful idea in theory, transferring the technology to the real world will require extra infrastructure—and it's not clear that this is the best technique to use. But it's at least comforting to know that engineers around the world are at least coming up with new ideas to satisfy our insatiable appetite for bandwidth. [Nature Photonics via BBC via Verge]

Image by nrkbeta under Creative Commons license