Science & Technology, UK (Commonwealth Union) – A groundbreaking advancement in fibre broadband technology, developed by researchers at the University College London (UCL), promises unparalleled speed, capacity, and reliability. This cutting-edge telecommunications innovation, referred to as frequency referenced multiplexing, holds the potential to meet the connectivity requirements of future applications like autonomous vehicles and fleets of drones.
Described in the publication “Nature Electronics,” this new technology could deliver over 20 times the capacity of the best existing full fibre broadband networks and a remarkable 65 times the speed of typical home broadband in the UK, all while ensuring a nearly guaranteed connection with minimal latency.
Telecommunications networks serve as the digital highways of the Internet, carrying data that links us to the Cloud. Leading networks employ fibre optic cables to transmit and receive information. Presently, time division multiplexing (TDM) is the prevalent method for managing data traffic in the evolving UK full fibre broadband landscape. TDM merges data from multiple users into a single signal, allocating brief time slots for each user’s data to be transmitted before reassembly at its destination.
However, TDM necessitates that each user’s data awaits its turn, akin to cars waiting at traffic lights before progressing. While this approach has been effective for coordinating data transmission through fibre, it restricts data capacity and prolongs transmission times.
The fastest available full fibre broadband in the UK provides download speeds exceeding one gigabit per second (Gb/s), typically accompanied by slower upload speeds. Though the adoption of full fibre broadband has surged, incorporating fibre optic connections into homes and businesses across the country, the last leg of the connection, entering homes, still often relies on older, slower copper wiring. Consequently, the average UK broadband speed as of September 2022 hovered around 65.3 megabits per second (Mb/s).
Escalating demands for swifter speeds and more dependable connections, catalyzed by trends like on-demand streaming and remote work due to the Covid-19 pandemic, have been pervasive. However, applications of the future, including networks for self-driving cars, mandate even higher speeds and unwavering connections for safe and efficient operation.
This study from UCL introduces frequency-referenced multiplexing as a solution to the latency and bandwidth limitations of existing methodologies like TDM. By leveraging optical and clock frequency synchronization via techniques such as frequency comb and signal processing, each user gains a dedicated optical channel. With this innovative approach, users effectively possess their own exclusive digital communication lane to the Cloud, eliminating the need to pause at traffic lights. The researchers successfully established a frequency referenced multiplexing system as proof-of-concept, enabling up to 64 users to attain speeds of up to 4.3 Gb/s each, culminating in an aggregated speed of 240 Gb/s for all users.
The researchers anticipate that frequency-referenced multiplexing could surpass current typical UK broadband performance by achieving more than 20 times the capacity and over 65 times the speed. By enabling parallel transmission and reception of user data, this approach effectively mitigates latency, power consumption, and capacity challenges that are prevalent in alternative methods. The resulting benefits have the potential to drive down costs for forthcoming full fibre broadband implementations, while concurrently enhancing network availability and speed for all users connected to the cloud.
Associate Professor Zhixin Liu of the UCL Electronic & Electrical Engineering, as well as the senior author of the study, says “Some technology commentators are predicting networks of driverless cars and drone fleets in the not-too-distant future, all controlled from the Cloud. Our present telecommunications infrastructure isn’t equipped for such advancements, which necessitate guaranteed connectivity, minimal latency, synchronized clocks, and vastly improved speeds. Our research suggests that the frequency-referenced multiplexing approach can upgrade our fibre infrastructure to meet these technical demands. In the short term, the technology has the potential to provide a much better home broadband service at a low infrastructure cost.”
