Inexpensive Nano-Grooved 'Traffic Cop' Filter Could Supercharge Fiber-Optic Data Speeds

By Clay Dillow Posted 05.04.2010 at 12:15 pm 5 Comments

Making Fiber Optics Faster rpongsaj via Flickr

Fiber-optic cable has exponentially increased the speed at which we can transfer data over the decades, but as we stream more and more services through a single fiber cable, we can expect all that information to start bottlenecking at some point. To keep that from happening, a researcher at Tel Aviv University has created a tiny plastic gateway that will direct traffic through our fiber networks and, he claims, make the Web run hundreds of times faster.

Many households pipe phone lines, television, and Internet through a single fiber cable, with the latter two media sucking more and more bandwidth all the time. Currently, most systems rely on semiconductor filters that help organize the incoming information in a fiber-optic cable.

But semiconductors take a long time to manufacture and as such usually come at a price. The Tel Aviv researchers think a plastic filter is far more economical, and now they think they've invented a polymer photonic switching device that will replace semiconductors within the next decade. The nano-based filter works by carving nanometer-sized grooves into the plastic switch into which the light from the cable flows. The many grooves modulate the light, filtering the data and encoding it into usable information.

Unlike finicky semiconductor-based switches, these plastic filters can be manufactured nearly anywhere; almost any laboratory can make them by pouring a special liquid plastic solution into a special mold and letting it cure for a few minutes. That's in stark contrast to semiconductors, which must be grown on crystals in sterile lab environments and which are then quite fragile and not very flexible.

The hard part will be getting the communications industry to adopt a plastic switch over the semiconductors upon which they've relied for years. But Dr. Koby Scheuer, the lead researcher on the program, is optimistic that it will happen, noting that his polymeric device can do all the things semiconductors can do "at a speed, quality and cost that the semiconductor industry can't even imagine."

[Tel Aviv University]

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5 Comments

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Soroshi

05/04/10 at 5:49 pm

Perhaps this will bring internet costs down?? We pay waaaaayyy too much for internet connection in North America.

Imagine Paying $22.69 US/month for 20Mbps download speed. (O2, UK www.broadband.o2.co.uk/home/packages.jsp)
How about $15.12 US/month for 20Mbps download speed? (Orange, UK www.shop.orange.co.uk/broadband/compare-all)

Compare that to $67.95 US/month for 20Mbps download speed. (Comcast, US www.ispcompared.com/details-broadband/features/comcast-internet-features.htm)
Or $93.60 US/Month for 25Mbps download speed. (Shaw, Canada www.shaw.ca/en-ca/ProductsServices/Internet/Warp/)

From this you can see... we in NA pay way too much for our broadband.

Sorry if this is considered spam... I just wanted to get my point across...

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HazMatt

05/04/10 at 8:21 pm

I agree, Soroshi. Unfortunetaly, I doubt any new technology will actually be the cause of prices falling for us here in North America. The greed of these companies and their stockholders is the reason for the high prices. Not the cost of providing the service. The only thing that we can hope for is more competition that will lower prices. When you only have one or two options for getting broadband internet into your home, those providers can pretty much charge whatever they want. And so they do. Corporations have shown time and time again that social responsibility is not part of their agenda. Greed runs these corporations. Plain and simple.

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therealjbob

05/04/10 at 11:03 pm

It's the government that lets these cable companies get away with charging what ever they want. The cable companies made a deal that if they paid the whole price of installing their plant the government wouldn't regulate them and allow them to charge whatever they want to supposedly recoup the costs of installing their plant. I'm not one for govt. regulation, but I do feel the cable companies are ripping everyone off and it should be regulated.

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GiveMeBackMyCountry

05/06/10 at 3:30 am

therealjbob, it's no wonder our country is in the mess it's in. The government doesn't "let these cable companies get away with" anything. And you aren't "one for gov't regulation, BUT" you'd like them to regulate this for you. For the love of Pete.

WE DON'T NEED THE GOVERNMENT TO REGULATE OUR PRIVATE BUSINESS. Here's the deal. You don't like their prices, don't buy their product. Simple as that. They don't have customers, their price will come down.

Why does everyone suddenly need our government to do everything for us? It's the most corrupt, selfish, and arrogant minority of individuals in this country and they are stealing you blind.

Our government should be taking care of 3, maybe 4 things according to our Constitution. Can you name them? I doubt it, because you're too worried that they're not providing you with fair cable prices today and "free" health care tomorrow.

GM should have went bankrupt because they built shitty cars. Build good cars, people will buy them. Brilliant right? Now it's government owned, they used YOUR tax dollars to buy the company, and then used more of your tax dollars to pay the loan back. Awesome! Then they tell you with a shit-eating grin on their face they paid the loan back...and 5 years early too! Well geez thanks guys...can I bend over any further for you?

Stop making our government so powerful, and suddenly big business will no longer be powerful. And you'll get cheap cable.

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polymath87

05/06/10 at 3:31 pm

@ Soroshi

Nice job providing concrete pricing examples.

It seems like we see a new article every 2 weeks about some amazing internet technology that will revolutionize data transfer/prices. Either we are headed for an explosion of internet connectivity or 10 years from now we are going to be wondering why this idea went the same way as our flying cars and self-cleaning kitchens.

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