En Route for Infinite-Capacity Wireless Networks with Twisted Vortex Radio Waves

University of Southern California researchers have been working towards developing their previous work based on the infinity-capacity twisted laser vortex networks are now looking forward in using the same technology in the radio waves. The previous technique which was basically laser-based was operable over short distances and that too with minimum atmospheric interference. In comparison to this the twisted radio waves are rougher and can easily be transmitted over much longer distances. This will allow the wireless networks to carry a lot more data when compared to the usual Wi-Fi router; this could be ranging in 100s or 1000s of gigabits/second.

About 2 and half years ago a Swedish researcher after years of hard work was able to prove that the radio waves can actually be transmitted in 3 dimensions rather than 2 dimensions. Every wireless network uses radio waves in their oscillation and that too in two dimensions. This wireless can be from Wi-Fi to satellite TV. According to Bo Thide, just by twisting the antenna one should be able to impart some variety of corkscrew action to radio waves, which will enable them to travel width-ways and in a 3 dimension. In theory with slight variation in the twist level a number of wireless connections will be able to share the same frequency.

These radio waves in technical terms have OAM (orbital angular momentum). As present almost all the radio-based network technologies use SAM (spin angular momentum). Spin angular momentum can be compared to the Earth spinning on its axis while Orbital angular momentum can be compared to Earth’s orbit around the Sun.

USC’s Alan Willner, has been using OAM for a few years to twist a group of lasers together and created the fastest wireless networks ever with the only drawback of operability limited to a distance of 1 meter. At the moment Willner along with his friends have been able to repeat the same process with 28GHz radio waves. The USC researchers have been able to use OAM to clutch four 8Gbps radio links on the same frequency and get a total speed of 32Gbps; this has been achieved by using spiral phase plate mainly as a satellite dish with a slice taken out from it and slightly twisted.

Even though this might not be the fastest link speed but this USC’s method has more advantages being simple. In theory it might be possible for USC to keep adding more speed. At the moment the researchers are focusing on wireless backhaul. These high speed link as if now uses microwaves and are capable of a transmitting a few gigabits per second but if the spiral phase plate can be minimized we might be able to use the wireless links at home as well as in office.

We can easily say that wireless capacity will be booted by these Vortex radio waves. Apart from radio and television, wireless and cellular networks are becoming the most valued resources for a person.