Sep 17, 2021 16:00:00

Google sister company successfully transfers 700TB of data over 5km using 20Gbps wireless optical communication

X , a next-generation technology development company and sister company of Google, has announced that it has succeeded in communicating a total of 700TB of data with high accuracy between two cities on either side of the Congo River in central Africa using `` Project Taara ,'' a wireless optical communication project that connects distances of up to 20km at speeds of up to 20Gbps.

Beaming broadband across the Congo River – The X Blog
https://x.company/blog/posts/taara-beaming-broadband-across-congo/

Alphabet's Project Taara laser tech beamed 700TB of data across nearly 5km - The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/16/22677015/project-taara-fsoc-wireless-internet-kinshasa-congo-fiber

Project Taara is a project to deploy a system that communicates with invisible laser light in areas where communication infrastructure is not sufficiently developed due to geographical conditions. You can understand what the communication system used in Project Taara is by reading the following article.

'Project Taara' provides a network environment by connecting distances of up to 20 km with light rays - GIGAZINE

The capitals of the Republic of the Congo, Brazzaville , and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kinshasa , are adjacent to each other across the Congo River, with the distance between the two cities being only 4.8 km. However, in order to connect the two cities with optical fiber, it is necessary to bypass the Congo River, which is about 2 km wide at its widest point, and ultimately lay a cable over 400 km long, which will incur high construction costs.


Therefore, Project Taara's wireless optical communications (WOC) is used for communication between Brazzaville and Kinshasa.

The WOC used in Project Taara is characterized by its use of laser light rather than physical wires such as optical fiber cables or metallic cables, making it less susceptible to geographical conditions. However, WOC has the disadvantage that communication can be blocked if a bird flies between the light-scanning device and the receiver or if there is fog, so it was thought to be unlikely to be feasible.

In order to increase the availability of WOC, Project Taara required the precision of 'shining a chopstick-sized beam of light on a target just 5 cm in size 10 km away.' To achieve this, the amount of laser power transmitted and the method of processing bits are automatically adjusted, while the receiver is equipped with a mechanism for optical correction using a movable mirror.

'Project Taara has communicated a total of approximately 700TB of data to date, which is enough data to watch 270,000 FIFA World Cup matches in HD quality for 20 days with 99.9% availability,' X said, stating that Project Taara's WOC has played a key role in providing high-speed, affordable connectivity to 17 million residents in Brazzaville and Kinshasa.

'It's a much better option to provide millions of people with high-speed internet of up to 20 Gbps all the time than to deny them the economic benefits of laying hundreds of kilometers of underground cables,' X said, and said he will help make faster communications cheaper not just in Congo but all over the world.

Continued
Project 'Taara', which provides Internet connection using laser light, is independent from research institute 'X' owned by Google's parent company - GIGAZINE