Alphabet’s (Google’s parent company) X division has announced the development of a breakthrough photonic chip to deploy an over-the-air internet network without wires. The light bridges are installed 1 km apart and provide a connection speed of 10 Gbps. With luck, this solution could displace fiber optic channels and even Starlink satellite internet. The future will tell.
Image source: Google
The project to create light bridges is called Taara, which means “star” in Sanskrit. The light transceiver in the Taara project was originally created for the Google Loon project, a network of high-altitude airships designed to deploy an Internet network in sparsely populated areas of the planet. However, the Google Loon project was closed, and promising developments were used in a new project.
The idea behind Taara’s bridges is that they could be a low-cost alternative to fiber. “Fiber is the gold standard for high-speed connectivity, but it’s often too expensive, impractical, or geographically inaccessible,” explained Taara Senior Project Manager Mahesh Krishnaswamy. The solution could help those without fiber access, as well as those living in densely populated areas where Starlink is less effective.
The first generation of Taara bridges measured about 76 cm and included many mirrors and calibration devices. These “traffic lights” could transmit data at a speed of 20 Gbps over a distance of 20 km. The new solution is the embodiment of minimalism. Now the Taara transceiver fits on a fingernail – its dimensions are only 13 mm. The transmission speed has been reduced to 10 Gbps over a distance of 1 km, but this is compensated by the reduced dimensions and significantly lower cost of such bridges. All calibration systems are now built into the chip, which is a practically ready-made device capable of revolutionizing the field of telecommunications.
«“Our team envisions a future where connectivity is not limited by cables or high costs,” Krishnaswamy continues. “By dramatically reducing the size and complexity of our systems, we aim to ultimately significantly reduce the cost of connectivity, creating a network effect in the industry.”
To Taara’s credit, the technology has already demonstrated its effectiveness in real-world settings. Taara’s “light bridges” have been successfully deployed around the world, providing connectivity in the Caribbean after cables were cut, in urban centers in India where 5G support is not yet available, and in many other locations.
The next step in Taara’s development will be to work on a new chip design. The company plans to increase the range and throughput of the device by creating a version with thousands of emitters.