VIDEO: TWISTED LIGHT COMMUNICATION COULD GIVE BETTER INTERNET WITHOUT THE CABLES

Thanks to a team of UK researchers, there could soon be broadband speed equivalent to a fibre optic cable network, without any of the actual cables involved. 

The Structured Photonics Research Group at the University of Glasgow has been looking into something called twisted light communication. The research team now believe they have made significant advances towards a new wireless broadband technology with a much higher capacity than today's networks. 

The research team worked in partnership with the Max Planck Insitute for the Science of Light and Institute of Optics, and the Universities of Otago, Ottawa and Rochester. 

The team tested a technique that involved twisting protons by passing them through a hologram, giving them optical angular momentum. The number of twists each of these protons get can be used to carry additional information, aside from the binary 1's and 0's carried by today's optical network. 

Basically, consumers will have the same speed as today, but with even more bandwidth at our disposal. 

The research paper was lead by Dr Martin Lavery, and according to the research the optical transmission carried out wirelessly could be a huge boon for developing countries, where the infrastructure to lay cables might be too expensive. 

“In an age where our global data consumption is growing at an exponential rate, there is mounting pressure to discover new methods of information-carrying,” he said. “This study takes vital steps forward in the journey towards high dimensional free space optics that can be a cheaper, more accessible alternative to buried fibre-optic connections.”

In the video below you can see how fibre internet works, in case you did not know, check it out!