Thursday, September 16th 2021
Project Taara: Alphabet's Laser-based 20 Gbps Communication System Transmits 700 TB Over 5 Km
Alphabet has announced that its prototype implementation of a laser-based communications system, Project Taara, successfully managed to transmit over 700 Terabytes of data over a 5 km distance. The system successfully transmitted the information across the Congo river in the African continent, connecting the towns of Brazzaville (Republic of Congo) and Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of Congo). The system aims to deliver fiber-optic-level communications speed in locations where infrastructure investment cost for a fiber optics solution is economically unfeasible. In this case, Project Taara delivered the high-speed connection where 250 miles of fiber network cabling would need to be laid out to achieve the same effect. It should also allow for cheaper infrastructure development in well-developed cities.
The project has taken the Free Space Optical Communications technology developed for Project Loon, one of Alphabet's explorations on delivering high-speed internet connections to rural areas whilst using stratospheric helium balloons. Alphabet said that its Project Taara link was operational for 20 days during the test period, where it achieved a signal availability level of 99.9% - meaning that it was practically uninterrupted. The laser system features self-adjustment capabilities that aim to circumvent weather and wildlife elements, which allow the lasers to not only boost the laser strength if required, but also to adjust the output and input laser dishes by up to +/- 5 degrees. The system's current development stage should allows for "a light beam the width of a chopstick accurately enough to hit a 5-centimeter target that's 10 kilometers away."
The project was first deployed for testing in India, and the team behind it shared the following video which sheds some light on the process.
Source:
X Company
The project has taken the Free Space Optical Communications technology developed for Project Loon, one of Alphabet's explorations on delivering high-speed internet connections to rural areas whilst using stratospheric helium balloons. Alphabet said that its Project Taara link was operational for 20 days during the test period, where it achieved a signal availability level of 99.9% - meaning that it was practically uninterrupted. The laser system features self-adjustment capabilities that aim to circumvent weather and wildlife elements, which allow the lasers to not only boost the laser strength if required, but also to adjust the output and input laser dishes by up to +/- 5 degrees. The system's current development stage should allows for "a light beam the width of a chopstick accurately enough to hit a 5-centimeter target that's 10 kilometers away."
28 Comments on Project Taara: Alphabet's Laser-based 20 Gbps Communication System Transmits 700 TB Over 5 Km
Yes, it's still a far shot from great but definitely a good approach and more feasible than fiber-cables or satellite solutions, especially for areas like the one tested in.
What I wrote for the technology's inherent fundamental limitations is still true.
Given how well microwave fronthaul works in rain... which is a few magnitude bigger waves than nmWaves of laser
I'm very doubtful of this working outside arid, low percipation areas
Lasers would work when you're in a pinch, but they will never be near as reliable as a flexible wired fiber optic connection that isn't prone to signal degradation from changes in air/particle composition or misalignments. Even if one is able to transfer hellabytes or brontobytes at a time using this, its not much help if its unreliable. heh, I think satellite TV is more reliable than this.
No, the problem isn't with having the lines above ground. The real issue is with dozy tw@ts that want to cut costs any way they can, regardless of how it affects service. Years ago, power outages were rare in my area, and when we did have them, the worst would last about 24 hrs. Some drunk assclown takes out a pole? No problem! 3-4 hours later a new pole is in the ground and everything is fine. Rain, sun, snow, sleet, windy, they were out working on the lines if needed.
Now we have outages much more frequently, and more often than not, it takes days to have power restored(sometimes longer than a week depending on the causes).
These power/cable companies don't want to spend much in the way of maintaining their lines and taking preventative measures. They would rather just wait until shit breaks and wait until the weather is nicer before repairing it. When I repeatedly drive by the same cable line and still see the same heavy tree laying across it for near two years, it really becomes a "WTF moment".
heh, another problem I see with going the way of lasers: drones. Just fly a drone in and let it hover at the right spot and no more laser transmission.
RONJA
Will it affect birds eyesight etc.
We all live in this world and we should all be Caring for it. We should all be "environmentalists".
If you are talking about 5G, no it ain't. Not outside of social media anyways.Basically, lasers of this strength won't have an issue with humidity guys.
You do know that microwave fronthaul can and is used to "see" percipation and rain-clouds?
It's rain, snow and dust. How will it work, when it's placed across a fjord, or mountain range where rain clouds go inbetween the sender/recievers?
Do you know the effect rain have on 10GHz microwave connectivity and modulation? It massivly decreases it's reliability. This will be in the 3 × 10^13 Hz (Infrared) - 3 × 10^15 Hz (Ultraviolet)
and in that case of boosting strength, how high signal strength/output? why not just boost the already existing microwave backhaul to those output levels, if you're gonna boost it?
How will it work in heavy wind? It says auto-correcting, but how quick is the auto-correct? In general, I'm also highly sceptical to self-correcting feature, how reliable will that be in a big rollout?
FR2 stands for 'Frequency Range 2'. Basically, RF waves with wavelenght in the mm range (and even smaller). It is also a part of 5G frequency spectrum. It's being widely deployed across the globe, sans Europe where many countries are putting memorandums in force.
While this mm waves are not ionizing, they have many, scientifically-proven adverse effects on many living things. In summary, they are harmful to human eyes and skin upon prolonged exposures.
The other huge concern is the harmful effect on many insects, bees incl. Given how fragile our ecosystem is, this a major red flag.
Not quite like Facebook posts, but have at it:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S037842742030028X
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29402696/
www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-22271-3
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30025338/
There are many others like these. I was able to track the scientific validity only of these. Even some simple googling will reveal true horrors. Huge lobbying prevents any significant hindrance from happening to the roll out of mmWave technologies.
The real concern I have with the latest mm waves is the way they interfere with huricane forcasting, which is real.
Saying hurricane forecasting interfering is real implies that the other issues I raised are not. Only that they are. That is why they are scientifically published; everyone is free to disprove them, if they can.