Engineers increased capacity of fiber optic almost 20 times

With the number of Internet-connected devices
increasing every day, the need for better and
faster Internet is considerable. University
researchers have come up with a clever solution
to this problem.

Electrical engineers at the University of
California, San Diego have broken the limits of
capacity of fiber optic cables almost 20 times,
successfully sending a signal through cable
7456.45 miles without electronic regenerators.

This breakthrough could potentially increase the
strength of the fiber optic cables that connect
the world.
Current technology of optical fiber allows only a
certain amount of force before the signals
through cables distorted, requiring the use of
expensive electronic regenerators to increase
the clarity of the signal through a long distance.

This distortion is called "crosstalk", and adheres
to a set of physical principles. In other words,
this distortion is not random, and therefore, is
expected.
Researchers at the University of California, San
Diego used what they call a "frequency comb" to
predict these distortions and reverse them,
creating a stronger and more without the need
for signal regenerators. With combs in place, the
researchers were able to send 20 times stronger
than the previous limit without any degradation
of the signal.

A press release from the University of California,
San Diego compared the use of these frequency
combs a concertino an orchestra tuning up
before a concert all instruments tune a given by
the concertino step, the synchronizing the whole
orchestra. In fiber-optic communications,
information is sent through multiple channels,
operating at different frequencies. Frequency
combs synchronize all these channels, which is
allowing them to send data to clear more than
7,000 miles of cable.
This breakthrough comes shortly after there was
a bit of panic in the media about the ability to
reach Internet due to limitations in the capacity
of fiber optics. Standard cables optical fiber
today will not be able to handle the growing
number of Internet-connected devices.

Researchers at the University of California, San
Diego have shown the world a promising solution
to the problem of improving the infrastructure of
today's existing optical fiber.