Google Recycles Optical Technologies from Project Loan to Create 20GB / V Wireless Connection

Researchers at Google’s Moonshot X Labs have developed a 20 Gb / s wireless optical connection in Africa, working on technologies that can connect geographical areas neglected by new technologies to the Internet.

In January 2021, Google announced Dropping the project loan, The name given to stratospheric balloons that need to create mesh networks to connect areas where internet access is most difficult to maintain. Today we learn – as Eric “Astro” Teller expected – that all of Looney’s hard work is not going away. In fact, some of these technologies are at the heart of Google’s “Project X”, which is called Project Tara. Here, a question for deploying solutions called Free Space Optical Communications or FSOC is, “Optical Connections in the Open”.

After initial testing And IndiaTechies from Alphabet’s “Moonshot” laboratories in Africa have created the first new generation of this type of connection, providing high speed connections of over 20 Gb / s between two points and benefiting from a clear line of sight. Between the Congo River, Brazzaville and Kinshasa. Reminder technology le WiMax, Whose deployments are very sparse and its performance does not reach the dotted ones here (WiMax networks are generally satisfied with a theoretical reception rate of 10 Mb / s).

99.9% available

Launched over twenty days ago, this high-speed connection has already carried nearly 700 TB of data, significantly enhancing the capabilities of local phone operator Econet’s fiber-optic network. When the crow flies, if the capitals of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are a few kilometers apart, the local terrain is not conducive to wire deployment and the transmitted data must travel several hundred kilometers over traditional networks. . These transmitters and receivers are able to create a cheap, fast and reliable internet connection that is particularly geographical (but also climate-friendly and favorable to use FSOC connections).

For local users, it is not possible to tell the difference in usage when data passes through Tara’s antennas or through a fiber optic network. Additionally, wireless connection availability was 99.9% during this first trial period.

Those responsible for the project will continue to analyze the impact of the environment on this link, including when weather conditions worsen. However, the technologies used as a result of Project Loon indicate that optical beams allow them to modify their power, although their tracking while flying to maintain their pointer and connection is only 5 cm to maintain the connection. About 10 km. In the distance. Thus, performance will be better when the fog rises, when it rains lightly, or when obstacles appear (approximately, birds). Technically, this will strengthen the speed and range of connections in the future, reaching several hundred gigabits (Gb / s) per second over twenty kilometers.