In yet another astounding application of the “wonder material” graphene, scientists at the University of California, Berkeley discovered that it makes an excellent active media for optical modulators. Graphene-based modulators are expected to significantly enhance ultrafast optical communication and computing.
Posts tagged "network"
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Graphene-based optical modulators poised to break speed limits in digital communications →
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On the path to 1 terabit-per-second networks →
As IP traffic continues to increase and the router interface rate extends beyond 100 gigabits-per-second (Gb/s), future optical networks—ones that would achieve unprecedented speeds of 1 terabit-per-second (Tb/s)—will be required to support the rapid growth of data services with different capacities and patterns on the same optical platform.
To address this issue, researchers at NTT Network Innovation Laboratories in Japan created and demonstrated a spectrally efficient, scalable elastic optical transport network architecture. The team will report on their findings at the Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exhibition/National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference (OFC/NFOEC) taking place next week in Los Angeles.
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Record-Speed Wireless Data Bridge Demonstrated: Takes High-Speed Communications the Last Mile →
A team of researchers in Germany has created a new way to overcome many of the issues associated with bringing high-speed digital communications across challenging terrain and into remote areas, commonly referred to as the “last mile” problem. The researchers developed a record-speed wireless data bridge that transmits digital information much faster than today’s state-of-the-art systems.
These unprecedented speeds, up to 20 billion bits of data per second, were achieved by using higher frequencies than those typically used in mobile communications—the wireless bridge operates at 200 gigahertz (GHz) (two orders of magnitude greater than cell phone frequencies).
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Genetically-inspired algorithm could improve network security →
Computer scientists at Wake Forest University are using a genetically-inspired algorithm that proactively discovers more secure computer network configurations.
Inadequate security configurations are responsible for a large number of security vulnerabilities — up to 80 percent of those identified by the United States Air Force, for example. Computer science associate professor Errin Fulp and graduate student Michael Crouse were funded by a grant from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to improve defence mechanisms with minimal human interaction.
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New Hanover County, N.C., First in Nation to Deploy ‘Super Wi-Fi’ Network →
What’s been marked as a first-in-the-nation launch, New Hanover County, N.C., will begin a phased deployment later this month of a “super Wi-Fi” network in the TV white space spectrum. “We will be using this new technology to extend our networks outdoors into our parks and gardens to provide enhanced services to our citizens,” said county Board of Commissioners Vice Chairman Jason Thompson, in a statement.
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DNA motor programmed to navigate a network of tracks →
Expanding on previous work with engines traveling on straight tracks, a team of researchers at Kyoto University and the University of Oxford have successfully used DNA building blocks to construct a motor capable of navigating a programmable network of tracks with multiple switches. The findings, published in the January 22 online edition of the journal Nature Nanotechnology, are expected to lead to further developments in the field of nanoengineering.
The research utilizes the technology of DNA origami, where strands of DNA molecules are sequenced in a way that will cause them to self-assemble into desired 2D and even 3D structures. In this latest effort, the scientists built a network of tracks and switches atop DNA origami tiles, which made it possible for motor molecules to travel along these rail systems.
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PhD Thesis: A Web of Things Application Architecture →
As the eternal second (although my thesis was finished first ;-P), I’m following Vlad’s great idea to make the final version of my thesis available to you, WoTters!
Vlad and I were always pretty complementary in building our shared vision of the Web of Things. As such, my thesis is focusing more on the “software engineering” aspects of the Web of Things. I’d like to see it as a cookbook for implementing the Web of Things in such a way that for every cross-cutting concern, there is a Web recipe!
The architecture (see figure below) proposes Web solutions to 4 of these concerns: accessibility, findability, sharing and composition. It also introduces the Social Web of Things (where things use social networks) and the notion of Physical Mashups (where things can be used easily in 2.0 Web mashups).
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Tracking And Rescuing Firefighters With Disposable "Breadcrumb" Routers →
The Department of Homeland Security has unveiled a tiny, disposable router that allows first responders to communicate digitally in emergencies—and could replace two-way radios.
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Last IP address going, going, gone
The international organization that issues Internet Protocol (IP) addresses is expected to announce Feb. 3 that there are no more free addresses available.
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Internet for Robots Lets Bots Share Instructions and Learn from One Another →
Well, we’ve seen this movie before (literally speaking). A group of robotics engineers at the University of Technology in Eindhoven are developing an Internet for robots; a kind of online database from which robots can download instructions and to which they can upload “experience.” According to its creators, their RoboEarth system will allow robots to share information and learn from each other, allowing the benefits of machine cognition and learning to proliferate through a network of bots. Cue the SkyNet comparisons.
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Plasma as a fast optical switch →
Just like an electrical switch allows the flow of electricity into electrical circuits, relativistic transparency in plasma can act like a fast optical switch allowing the flow of light through otherwise opaque plasma. Modern day lasers, such as the Trident laser in Los Alamos National Laboratory delivers a 200 terawatt power pulse (roughly 400 times the average electrical consumption of the United States) in half a trillionth of a second (picosecond) time. When the laser power reaches a threshold limit, relativistic transparency in plasma turns the initially opaque plasma transparent in less than a tenth of a picosecond.
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Silence noise to improve communication →
Transmission of data through optical networks is currently limited by “phase noise” from optical amplifiers and “cross talk” induced by interaction of the signal with the many other signals (each at a different wavelength) simultaneously circulating through the network.
Phase noise is the rapid, short-term, random fluctuations in the phase of a signal, which affects the quality of the information sent and results in data transmission errors. Cross talk refers to any signal unintentionally affecting another signal.
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Escher-like internet map could speed online traffic →
A novel map of the internet created by Marián Boguñá and colleagues at the University of Barcelona, Spain, could help make network glitches a thing of the past.
Boguñá squeezed the entire network into a disc using hyperbolic geometry, more familiar to us through the circular mosaic-like artworks of M. C. Escher.
Each square on the map is an “autonomous system” – a section of the network managed by a single body such as a national government or a service provider. The most well-connected systems are close to the centre, while the least connected are at the edges. The area of the hyperbolic plane grows exponentially with distance from the centre, so the edges of the map are “roomier” than the middle.
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Immortal signals promise perfect web video →
A perfect stream of video delivered down your broadband connection without irritating blips may seem as likely as uncovering the elixir of youth. Now a team of optical engineers think they have discovered the secret to both. They’ve devised a way to revitalise light signals being sent down optical fibres, enabling them to send more information down the wires.
