'World's fastest WiFi' uses 'lasers'

We love the smell of a "world's fastest" or "world's largest" claim in the morning. This time it's a team of researchers led by Ernesto Ciaramella at the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa Italy, saying they've developed the "world's fastest WiFi." Their network beams data at an amazing 1.2Tbps over a few kilometers, more than enough to share your entire Kurosawa collection faster than you can say "Yojimbo." So, performance claims are valid, but we're not sure about that "WiFi" part. Data was transmitted using Free Space Optics (FSO), blinking lasers or LEDs that act like fiber optics without the fiber. This means line-of-sight connections only, so if you get frustrated when concrete walls hamper your WiFi downloads imagine how you'd feel if a little puffy cloud killed all your torrents. So, fastest wireless? Check. Practical solution for high-speed wireless communications? Not so much.

[Pumping_Iron @ Sep 12th 2008 10:42AM]

"Frikkin' laaasers"

[Nicholas @ Sep 12th 2008 10:46AM]

Now all I want is some frikken' sharks with some frikken' laser beams attached to their frikken' heads!

[dj496 @ Sep 12th 2008 10:56AM]

Yeah, he's probably so jealous of these frikkin' "laser beams" that he's going to bribe them with "One. Million. Dollars"!

[Actually guys, Dr Evil jokes are old now. So are Mike Myers'.]

[WilfordBrimley @ Sep 12th 2008 11:04AM]

Sorry, all we have are ill-tempered mutated seabass.

[From India @ Sep 12th 2008 11:05AM]

What makes you think it isn't?

[j_g_puff @ Sep 12th 2008 11:41AM]

I hate to be a pedant, but they seem thoroughly confused about what WiFi actually is. 'WiFi' is the consumer-centric name for a set of compatible devices as controlled by the WiFi Alliance (http://www.wi-fi.org/). These devices implement a subset of the IEEE's 802.11 standard.

These lasers, whilst most certainly gnarly, are absolutely unrelated. They're more akin to optical comms without the fiber.

[j_g_puff @ Sep 12th 2008 11:45AM]

"They're more akin to optical comms without the fiber. "

Just as it says in the article, in fact.

/me RTFAs, then twats self on bonce

[I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY @ Sep 13th 2008 12:01AM]

I bet the guys on the receiving end of the data were busy making popcorn.

[nDee @ Sep 13th 2008 12:39AM]

Bye bye laser?

[Chris Hanson @ Sep 12th 2008 10:44AM]

Quote on Quote "L-A-S-E-R"

Also my Stupid Iphone is still has lag after that update!!!

Contacts are laggy and the stupid Predeictive texting is STILL THERE!!!

GIVE US THE OPTION TO TURN OFF THAT CRAP !!!!!

[JR @ Sep 12th 2008 10:49AM]

Does this guy think Engadget is Apple tech support?

[From India @ Sep 12th 2008 11:08AM]

{one more try...correct post now, light color posts throwing me off}

What makes you think it isn't??

[half&half @ Sep 12th 2008 11:15AM]

Its not?

[Hellaphunt @ Sep 12th 2008 11:14AM]

Also, it's "Quote, unquote."

[bigbluebeetle @ Sep 12th 2008 11:23AM]

.. And there's no real reason to write Quote unquote.. Why not just use "quotes"?

[Jesse Felt @ Sep 12th 2008 1:25PM]

Did you accidentally the whole thing?

[Shakes @ Sep 12th 2008 11:32AM]

damn @ pumping iron, you stole what i was gonna say!

lazers makes things better.

[blore40 @ Sep 12th 2008 10:46AM]

So if they blast enough data from the Leaning tower, they might the tower stand straight.

[blore40 @ Sep 12th 2008 10:48AM]

"...might make the tower.."

[maveric101 @ Sep 12th 2008 10:48AM]

what frequency of laser was used? Is there such a thing as a 2.4ghz lazer? That would go through walls.

[Carpet @ Sep 12th 2008 11:10AM]

maveric101,

"what frequency of laser was used? Is there such a thing as a 2.4ghz lazer? That would go through walls."

The 2.4ghz is undoubtable the frequency that packets of information is sent at. The frequency of the actual laser will determine it's wavelength (ie colour). It'll be far greater than 2.4ghz. The intensity of the laser will determine whether it'll blow stuff up.

I was about to commet how this isn't wifi, but although it needs line of sight, it is electromagnetic waves just like the radio wifi works over.

[Skyride @ Sep 12th 2008 3:01PM]

Nice thinking but not so maverick. The wavelength (which is a different thing entirely) would determine the colour. 2.4GHz determines the number of pulses per second are sent. The laser, I would presume is a Red laser. Blue lasers dissapate in a much shorter distance. It could actually even be an infrared invisible laser (as that would be better for long distance comms).

Although to do the maths.

1.2Tbps = 1319413953331.2 pulses per sec
1319413953331.2 = 1319413953331.2Hz = 1.2THz.

Yes, its that simple :)

[loosely_coupled @ Sep 12th 2008 6:06PM]

You both have no idea what you are talking about...

[maveric101 @ Sep 12th 2008 8:58PM]

omigod, i made a mistake, so sorry.

[Spork @ Sep 12th 2008 10:56AM]

Is that Robert Downey Jr.?

[The Pepto Pimp @ Sep 12th 2008 11:33AM]

Yes, but don't tell anyone. SAG doesn't like moonlighting.

[jamax @ Sep 12th 2008 11:58AM]

the guy beside him looks like sean penn.. :0

[Ytril @ Sep 12th 2008 3:38PM]

Nice Guy Eddie was always one of my favorites, but he died too easy for being a gangster. It was such a let down.

[giyad @ Sep 12th 2008 5:22PM]

hahahahah, good call... but why does he looks so pissed off, like hes going to kill the other three guys with his eyes

[xcrunk @ Sep 12th 2008 10:59AM]

Line of sight has to be PERFECT for this to work.

Amazing they could do that.

[porath @ Sep 12th 2008 11:00AM]

the power of a laser is actually determined by its wattage. the frequency would determine how often the pulses come, which can be between the femtosecond and picosecond range. in order to transmit data at 1.2 Terabits per second (0.15 Terabytes per second), i believe the laser would have to pulse approximately 1.319 * 10^12 times per second, so the frequency of the pulse would of course be ~1.319 THz.

correct me if i'm wrong though, guys. i'm no mathemetician. :)

[porath @ Sep 12th 2008 11:04AM]

meant to reply to maveric101

[porath @ Sep 12th 2008 11:21AM]

actually i just realized i didn't account for any error correction at all, so it'd have to be probably 5-10% higher than my estimate.

[Skyride @ Sep 12th 2008 3:05PM]

My numbers are a little more rounded but both of ours are correct. Although as you say, neither of us are factoring in error correction. I reckon you would want 2 of every bit sent at a later time. So that'd be 50% slower transfer speed or twice the frequency.

[Will @ Sep 12th 2008 11:03AM]

Kind of old Black Box already has something that does this.

http://www.blackbox.com/Catalog/Detail.aspx?cid=425,429,1798&mid=4710

[porath @ Sep 12th 2008 11:05AM]

well yeah it does network using lasers but this team made a network that's over 10 times faster than the blackbox device :p

[Will @ Sep 12th 2008 11:09AM]

1. Buy an off the Shelf Laser networking product from black box.
2. Give it " More Power"
3. ?????
4. Profit

[kphitman13 @ Sep 12th 2008 11:06AM]

This is a pretty groundbreaking technology. The ability to shoot that much information over an area that fast is amazing. Its future uses, imagine when this tech is perfected. Satalite internet will be a better option because everbody can get it, its fast, and how cool is that, i mean, c'mon. For now, ah, not so useful. Imagine a tower that stands up higher that anything else in a city that everybody has to point at to get line of sight connection. Point your iPhone at it if you want that song download. Granted it would be fast, youd look like a fool doing that.

[m.soldier38 @ Sep 12th 2008 11:40AM]

Your definitely on the right track. What I am thinking is a much smaller transmitter in each room or distributed around a city that makes that room/area able to connect. Granted, the whole LOS has to be perfected but its do-able. Kudos to the team for even thinking this up let alone building it. Geniuses. Amazing technology and the steps that we're taking.

[absinthe party @ Sep 12th 2008 11:19AM]

Due to your comma usage, I read your comments like you just finished running up a few flights of stairs to tell us this information.

[John @ Sep 12th 2008 12:36PM]

yeah... satellite connections that only work when you have a perfect line of sight to the satellite. God help you if a bird, airplane, cloud, or drop of water gets in the way.

[porath @ Sep 12th 2008 11:16AM]

there would have to be one laser for each network client. either that or the laser would have to have some incredible targeting software and there would have to be a queue for usage, but that's not really all that useful either because then you'd have to wait a bit each time you went to a new web page or something.

[matthew @ Sep 12th 2008 6:03PM]

NOw, all you'd need is a big spinning mirror and you could vaporize a human target from space.

[Bern @ Sep 12th 2008 11:44AM]

Not a practical solution for high-speed wireless communications? Just put a bunch of mirrors.

[Rob K @ Sep 12th 2008 12:47PM]

Because a bunch of mirrors are practical?

[Prasand J. @ Sep 12th 2008 12:55PM]

While I haven't read the "read" link, this seems to be along the lines of this:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/01/ibms-green-optical-link-promises-one-second-movie-downloads/

[Jared Prolo @ Sep 12th 2008 12:59PM]

This was done at Xerox PARC in the mid 70s.

Then again, just about everything else was also.

[nametilf @ Sep 13th 2008 3:21PM]

this is pretty cool in the technological advancement terms. while they DO say it can be messed with through line of sight, so what? a laser isnt that large, and for that amount, it might be economically feasible to bury a small sealed enclosure that spans the length and than bury it. we dont have any wire technology that is around that, do we? not saying it would be perfect, just debating if it would have any real world application.

[Tim S @ Sep 12th 2008 2:34PM]

Then we could make the buried housing flexible and internally reflective and we could call it ... "fibre" ;)

[davrodg @ Sep 12th 2008 8:37PM]

So your saying that fiberless fiber optic technology is the future, eh... Einstein would be proud - light is truly king, but I doubt penetration was one of Einstein's specialties, so I expect that in order to perform, the conditions must be "free of any foreseeable obstacles" in order to obtain maximum transmission speeds. Sweet.