Alphabet’s Project Taara laser tech beamed 700TB of data across nearly 5km

  • Aoptix was a company that did much than this more years ago. Founded in 2000 and despite 16 years and $150M raised, they could not find much of a market. The Aoptix system could transmit 4x this Google system, had further reach, and achieved 5 nines reliability.

    https://www.lightreading.com/mobile/backhaul/exclusive-its-l...

    https://www.lightreading.com/mobile/backhaul/aoptix-rejoins-...

    The main problem with wireless optical backhaul is the high cost. It cannot compete with RF wireless.

  • > In 20 days, Project Taara lead Baris Erkmen says the link transmitted nearly 700TB of data

    700 TiB / 20 days ~= 3.56 Gbps

    700 TB / 20 days ~= 3.24 Gbps

  • 20 years ago, fully open source design, 10Mbit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RONJA

  • Very cool. I'd like to better understand the difference between this and other line of sight transmission stuff. I assume bandwidth and latency, but not sure the orders of magnitude.

  • Why use this instead of line-of-sight microwave links? Increased bandwidth at the expense of range?

  • What happens on a foggy day?