Patrick Nelson

Author Archives: Patrick Nelson

NASA to use data lasers to beam data from space to Earth

Starting in 2019, NASA will begin using laser communications technology to "enable greater return of science data from space." The reason is laser is more bandwidth-friendly than classic radio for data delivery, plus it's more secure, NASA says in a newly released explainer of its plans.Laser signals from space will be much harder to hack than old-school radio because the signal is more concentrated, the agency says on its website. Plus, the higher frequencies provide more bandwidth — important for space data crunching. And laser equipment is lighter, allowing for longer missions, among other benefits.To read this article in full, please click here

NASA to use data lasers to beam data from space to Earth

Starting in 2019, NASA will begin using laser communications technology to "enable greater return of science data from space." The reason is laser is more bandwidth-friendly than classic radio for data delivery, plus it's more secure, NASA says in a newly released explainer of its plans.Laser signals from space will be much harder to hack than old-school radio because the signal is more concentrated, the agency says on its website. Plus, the higher frequencies provide more bandwidth — important for space data crunching. And laser equipment is lighter, allowing for longer missions, among other benefits.To read this article in full, please click here

Private LTE, using new spectrum, approaching ‘market readiness’

Deploying private internet of things LTE networks using open-access, about-to-be-released, shared spectrum is getting closer to the starting gate, according to the CBRS Alliance, which has just announced the inception of eight global test labs for its OnGo equipment certifications. Enterprises will be able to use their own, in-building, dedicated equipment for the cellular-like systems on new frequencies.As a sign “of market readiness, OnGo access points from several member companies have already started the testing process,” CBRS Alliance says in the release on its website. OnGo is CBRS Alliance’s moniker for the mobile broadband-like CBRS LTE shared-spectrum equipment.To read this article in full, please click here

Fiber transmission range leaps to 2,500 miles, and capacity increases

Fiber transmission could be more efficient, go farther, carry more traffic and be cheaper to implement if the work of scientists in Sweden and Estonia is successful.In a recent demonstration, researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, and Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia, used new, ultra-low-noise amplifiers to increase the normal fiber-optic transmission link range six-fold.And in a separate experiment, researchers at DTU Fotonik, Technical University of Denmark used a unique frequency comb to push more than the total of all internet traffic down one solitary fiber link.[ Read also: How Google is speeding up the Internet ] Fiber transmission limits Signal noise and distortion have always been behind the limits to traditional (and pretty inefficient) fiber transmission. They’re the main reason data-send distance and capacity are restricted using the technology. Experts believe, however, that if the noise that’s found in the amplifiers used for gaining distance could be cleaned up and the signal distortion inherent in the fiber itself could be eliminated, fiber could become more efficient and less costly to implement.To read this article in full, please click here

Fiber transmission range leaps to 2,500 miles, and capacity increases

Fiber transmission could be more efficient, go farther, carry more traffic and be cheaper to implement if the work of scientists in Sweden and Estonia is successful.In a recent demonstration, researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, and Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia, used new, ultra-low-noise amplifiers to increase the normal fiber-optic transmission link range six-fold.And in a separate experiment, researchers at DTU Fotonik, Technical University of Denmark used a unique frequency comb to push more than the total of all internet traffic down one solitary fiber link.[ Read also: How Google is speeding up the Internet ] Fiber transmission limits Signal noise and distortion have always been behind the limits to traditional (and pretty inefficient) fiber transmission. They’re the main reason data-send distance and capacity are restricted using the technology. Experts believe, however, that if the noise that’s found in the amplifiers used for gaining distance could be cleaned up and the signal distortion inherent in the fiber itself could be eliminated, fiber could become more efficient and less costly to implement.To read this article in full, please click here

Fiber transmission range leaps to 2,500 miles, and capacity increases

Fiber transmission could be more efficient, go farther, carry more traffic and be cheaper to implement if the work of scientists in Sweden and Estonia is successful.In a recent demonstration, researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, and Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia, used new, ultra-low-noise amplifiers to increase the normal fiber-optic transmission link range six-fold.And in a separate experiment, researchers at DTU Fotonik, Technical University of Denmark used a unique frequency comb to push more than the total of all internet traffic down one solitary fiber link.[ Read also: How Google is speeding up the Internet ] Fiber transmission limits Signal noise and distortion have always been behind the limits to traditional (and pretty inefficient) fiber transmission. They’re the main reason data-send distance and capacity are restricted using the technology. Experts believe, however, that if the noise that’s found in the amplifiers used for gaining distance could be cleaned up and the signal distortion inherent in the fiber itself could be eliminated, fiber could become more efficient and less costly to implement.To read this article in full, please click here

Enterprises should be able to sell their excess internet capacity

Peer-to-peer exchanges of excess bandwidth could one day be commonplace, says a firm that is attempting to monetize redundant internet capacity. It wants to create a marketplace for selling internet data throughput that has been already bought by organizations, but which is often dormant during out-of-work hours — the bandwidth is customarily just lying around then, not being used.Dove Network wants to “do to the telecom industry what Airbnb did to the hotel industry,” co-founder Douglas Schwartz told me via email.The idea is that those with excess data capacity, such as a well-provisioned office or data center, which may not be using all of its throughput capacity all of the time — such as during the weekend — allocates that spare bandwidth to Dove’s network. Passing-by data-users, such as Internet of Things-based sensors or an individual going about business, would then grab the data it, he, or she needs; payment is then handled seamlessly through blockchain smart contracts.To read this article in full, please click here

Enterprises should be able to sell their excess internet capacity

Peer-to-peer exchanges of excess bandwidth could one day be commonplace, says a firm that is attempting to monetize redundant internet capacity. It wants to create a marketplace for selling internet data throughput that has been already bought by organizations, but which is often dormant during out-of-work hours — the bandwidth is customarily just lying around then, not being used.Dove Network wants to “do to the telecom industry what Airbnb did to the hotel industry,” co-founder Douglas Schwartz told me via email.The idea is that those with excess data capacity, such as a well-provisioned office or data center, which may not be using all of its throughput capacity all of the time — such as during the weekend — allocates that spare bandwidth to Dove’s network. Passing-by data-users, such as Internet of Things-based sensors or an individual going about business, would then grab the data it, he, or she needs; payment is then handled seamlessly through blockchain smart contracts.To read this article in full, please click here

Computing should be based on light, not electricity, scientists say

Light-carrying, miniature wires are potentially more efficient for computing than other forms of interconnects, including copper and larger optical systems, say experts.However, there’s been a problem in getting such a nanowire system to work, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, explains in an article published on Science Daily.“There hasn't been a controlled method for selectively sending light down along nanoscale wires,” says James Cahoon, a professor in the College of Arts and Sciences. “Optical technology has either used much larger structures or wasted a lot of light in the process.” Creating light uses power, defeating the object, for one thing.To read this article in full, please click here

Computing should be based on light, not electricity, scientists say

Light-carrying, miniature wires are potentially more efficient for computing than other forms of interconnects, including copper and larger optical systems, say experts.However, there’s been a problem in getting such a nanowire system to work, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, explains in an article published on Science Daily.“There hasn't been a controlled method for selectively sending light down along nanoscale wires,” says James Cahoon, a professor in the College of Arts and Sciences. “Optical technology has either used much larger structures or wasted a lot of light in the process.” Creating light uses power, defeating the object, for one thing.To read this article in full, please click here

Disruption Tolerant Networking could change the internet

Internet architecture doesn't need continuous paths between endpoints, says NASA in an announcement that may one day change the way the internet is envisioned.The U.S. government space agency says Delay or Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) — something it’s been working on for disruption-prone space internet applications — doesn’t need continuous network connectivity, unlike traditional internet.Importantly, it says the delay and fault-tolerant technology could be used down on Earth, too. The networking protocol suite concept would be particularly well suited to internet in remote locations, it says in a press release, related to demonstrations of the technology.To read this article in full, please click here

Disruption Tolerant Networking could change the internet

Internet architecture doesn't need continuous paths between endpoints, says NASA in an announcement that may one day change the way the internet is envisioned.The U.S. government space agency says Delay or Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) — something it’s been working on for disruption-prone space internet applications — doesn’t need continuous network connectivity, unlike traditional internet.Importantly, it says the delay and fault-tolerant technology could be used down on Earth, too. The networking protocol suite concept would be particularly well suited to internet in remote locations, it says in a press release, related to demonstrations of the technology.To read this article in full, please click here

Internet infrastructure will be inundated as sea levels rise, says report

By 2033, over 4,000 miles of underground fiber will be beneath sea water, and hundreds of data centers will be affected, reseachers at University of Wisconsin–Madison and the University of Oregon say. The conduits carrying the internet cables and the cables themselves are not designed for it — they’re water-resistant but not waterproof. That means global communications will get disrupted if action isn’t taken to mitigate the risk, the experts say.New York, Miami, and Seattle are the three major U.S. conurbations that the group says are most susceptible to metro-area cable inundation. However, the effects would ripple through the internet. And Los Angeles would be hit in its long-haul installations.To read this article in full, please click here

Internet infrastructure will be inundated as sea levels rise, says report

By 2033, over 4,000 miles of underground fiber will be beneath sea water, and hundreds of data centers will be affected, reseachers at University of Wisconsin–Madison and the University of Oregon say. The conduits carrying the internet cables and the cables themselves are not designed for it — they’re water-resistant but not waterproof. That means global communications will get disrupted if action isn’t taken to mitigate the risk, the experts say.New York, Miami, and Seattle are the three major U.S. conurbations that the group says are most susceptible to metro-area cable inundation. However, the effects would ripple through the internet. And Los Angeles would be hit in its long-haul installations.To read this article in full, please click here

Quantum-secured network ‘virtually un-hackable’

A 75-mile, quantum-secured, high-speed fiber link has been built in the United Kingdom, the largest internet supplier there has said.Particles of light, known as photons, carry encryption keys over the same connection as data. Hijacking those photons within the link immediately notifies the system that the keys have become bad — the thief interfering with those keys alters them and then they can’t be used by the interceptor — and the traffic becomes garbled instantly.It’s “virtually un-hackable,” said Gavin Patterson, outgoing BT chief executive, announcing the link at Internet of Things World Europe that I attended in London last month.To read this article in full, please click here

Quantum-secured network ‘virtually un-hackable’

A 75-mile, quantum-secured, high-speed fiber link has been built in the United Kingdom, the largest internet supplier there has said.Particles of light, known as photons, carry encryption keys over the same connection as data. Hijacking those photons within the link immediately notifies the system that the keys have become bad — the thief interfering with those keys alters them and then they can’t be used by the interceptor — and the traffic becomes garbled instantly.It’s “virtually un-hackable,” said Gavin Patterson, outgoing BT chief executive, announcing the link at Internet of Things World Europe that I attended in London last month.To read this article in full, please click here

Quantum-secured network ‘virtually un-hackable’

A 75-mile, quantum-secured, high-speed fiber link has been built in the United Kingdom, the largest internet supplier there has said.Particles of light, known as photons, carry encryption keys over the same connection as data. Hijacking those photons within the link immediately notifies the system that the keys have become bad — the thief interfering with those keys alters them and then they can’t be used by the interceptor — and the traffic becomes garbled instantly.It’s “virtually un-hackable,” said Gavin Patterson, outgoing BT chief executive, announcing the link at Internet of Things World Europe that I attended in London last month.To read this article in full, please click here

Qualcomm/Facebook gigabit Wi-Fi field trials to start in 2019

How should a company develop when its growth is dependent on availability of internet? Build out the internet is probably the answer. And that’s just what Facebook intends to do.The social network has just nabbed Qualcomm to help build its 2016-announced 60GHz urban Wi-Fi network, says Qualcomm. The chip maker recently announced that that the companies intend to start trials of the high-speed broadband solution sometime around mid-2019.“This terrestrial connectivity system aims to improve the speed, efficiency, and quality of internet connectivity around the world at only a fraction of the cost of fiber,” Qualcomm says in its release.To read this article in full, please click here

Get ready for upcoming 6G wireless, too

Coinciding with a signing-off of global standardizations for the as-yet-unlaunched 5G radio technology by 3GPP this month we get news of initial development plans for faster 6G wireless. The Center for Converged TeraHertz Communications and Sensing (ComSenTer) says it’s investigating new radio technologies that will make up 6G.One hundred gigabits-per-second speeds will be streamed to 6G users with very low latency, the group says on its website.To read this article in full, please click here

Microsoft launches undersea, free-cooling data center

A free supply of already-cooled deep-sea water is among the benefits to locating pre-packaged data centers underwater, believes Microsoft, which recently announced the successful launch of a submarine-like data center off the coast of the Orkney Islands in Scotland.The shipping-container-sized, self-contained server room, called Project Natick, submerged earlier this month on a rock shelf 117 feet below the water’s surface also has the benefit of potentially taking advantage of bargain-basement real estate near population centers — there’s no rent in open sea.“Project Natick is an out-of-the-box idea to accommodate exponential growth in demand for cloud computing infrastructure near population centers,” John Roach writes on Microsoft’s website.To read this article in full, please click here

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