Bell Labs sets new speed record

Scientists at Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies' research and development arm, have succeeded in using an experimental "no-fiber optical link" to send data through the air 1.5 miles at the rate of 2.5 Gb/s without error.

"The news here is both the distance and the data rate achieved," said Mike Geller, chief technical officer for the government solutions group at Bell Labs. "In the commercial world, 622 Mb/s has been the limit for wireless data links, and that was done with 1300-nm wavelength light," he said. Bell Labs used a wavelength of 1550 nm.

The San Diego test sent data from a transmitting telescope to a receiving telescope positioned 2.4 kilometers away and focused on the core of an optical fiber ring. AstroTerra Corp. built the telescopes for the test, which also used Lucent's standard optical transmitters and receivers and a high-power optical amplifier.

"We've taken a basic technology developed for fiber optic transmission and used it in free space," said Paul Szajowski, a Bell Labs physicist on the project. "That allows us to take full advantage of everything that's been developed for the high-speed communications business right now and apply it directly to free-space communication. This technology supports wavelength division multiplexing, so we will look at increasing the data rate as well as the distance in future tests."

Because the data link uses an unregulated frequency and requires line of sight, potential applications include extending campus wireless networks and sending high-speed data where no infrastructure exists or is needed only temporarily.

In space, an obvious application is connecting satellites, said Geller.

Datacom Research President Ira Brodsky agreed. "It could be very important to players like Iridium or Teledesic, who may want to increase data rates as they upgrade their satellites."

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