Clifford Paterson Lecture: Communicating with light

Professor Bayvel will describe the challenges and limits of communicating with light and the advances in optical and digital signal processing to maximise optical network capacity.

Some of the greatest scientific and technological successes of the past 50 years are in the area of communications. Most of the data we generate and receive (whether emails, tweets, videos or mobile calls) are now carried by optical fibres, which use light to transmit vast quantities of information over trans-oceanic distances. The use of hundreds of wavelengths (colours of light), over, a single fibre, as well as other properties of light: its amplitude, phase and polarization, have led to increases of many orders of magnitude in the optical information carrying capacity. This sparked the communication revolution and the growth of the Internet, and created an illusion of infinite capacity being available. But as the amounts of data increase, is there a limit to the capacity of an optical fibre communication channel? Professor Bayvel will describe the challenges and limits of communicating with light and the advances in optical and digital signal processing to maximise optical network capacity.

Register to tell a friend about this lecture.

Comments

If you would like to comment about this lecture, please register here.

©2003-2006 Niminim Limited. Created by

Any ad revenue is entirely reinvested into the Lecture List's operating fund