For the most part, we’re all happy if we can get Internet that’s fast enough to stream some HD video. But faster is always better, and a new, world-record setting network developed in Germany is so blazing fast you wouldn’t know what to do with it. It can deliver 10 HD films in a second.
Developed by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, the new 40Gb/s Wi-Fi (10x faster than Google Fibre) not only managed to nail crazy speeds, but also did it over a distance of one kilometre; way bigger than your house.
The jump in speed and distance is not only thanks to state-of-the-art hardware, but a higher frequency (240GHz) than your typical Wi-Fi setup uses (2.4GHz or 5GHz). This space seems to be a sweet spot for non-interference, letting signals dash across the air pretty easily.
The network was tested by beaming data from the top of one skyscraper to another, and chances are this kind of “invisible fibre” connection would be its biggest application, as opposed to your home Wi-Fi. Still, it could be super useful for ‘net distribution in rural area’s where fiber’s an expensive proposition with little pay off. Now if only they could roll out this tech as fast as it can transfer data. [Discovery]