Laser internet connection with Facebook's detector

Remote areas can be connected to internet by newly developed technology made by Facebook. Although we know Facebook as a social network, this company also has one big dream. It wants to connect the whole world to the internet and, therefore, a cheap internet connection is desperately needed. Facebook is one of many companies (next to Google, for example) that are developing new systems for spreading the internet connection. We have already heard about various drones, balloons and other. The new type of internet connection is the optical one but without optical cables. It is wireless.

 

 

Facebook wants to spread the internet signal using laser beams. It has several advantages. For example, they would not need radio wave licences. Also the interference with other networks can be eliminated (it is focused in one direction). On the other hand, this focusing is not simple. If the high speed is going to be achieved, the detector has to be very small (the order of square millimetres). The laser beams tend to spread out, so they need to be properly focused and have to be able to hit the small detector.

 

Nevertheless, Facebook's Connectivity Lab managed to create a special laser beam detector, that is able to work at quite high speeds at 2.1 Gbps but concurrently, it is not very small with the detection area of 126 square centimetres (19.53 square inches). It is formed from plastic optic fibers that are absorbing blue light and emit green light together to a photodiode. Facebook believes that the speed can be increased if the infrared light is used. Moreover, this light is invisible to humans and the power can be increased.

 

Source: techtimes.com, osapublishing.org, computerworld.com