Want faster mobile downloading? Graphene is key

By Warren Miller, contributing writer

The 25-Gb/s-per-channel communications rate can open up significant new applications. Image source: Pixabay.

Optical data communication is the present and future of mobile networking, with many of the world’s leading networking conglomerates competing — and collaborating — to devise the next innovation in faster, more efficient data transmission technology. At this year’s Mobile World Congress, a gathering of some of the world’s biggest mobile and networking technology companies, a consortium of European telecom giants known collectively as The Graphene Flagship introduced an all-graphene communication link capable of operating at a data rate of 25 Gb/s per channel and a new set of graphene-based photonic switches that operate at never-before-seen speeds. These two devices used in concert may represent the next step in data transmission and mobile networking.

The Graphene Flagship itself was assembled in order to incite cooperation between leading innovators from the worlds of industry and academics. It counts among its corporate contributors industry leaders like Ericsson, Nokia, and AMO gmbH. Graphene has long been seen as the next frontier material in optical datalink technology due to its relatively low cost and high effectiveness, but the Graphene Flagship devices have taken graphene-based networking tech to the next level.

“The current challenge for graphene photonics is to develop a fabrication technology that enables not only single devices with superior performance but mass production of millions of devices,” said Daniel Schall  from AMO GmbH. “With the all-graphene datalink, we take a significant step toward this goal because we demonstrate that devices fabricated using volume-production techniques are functional in a real configuration.”

Ideally, the graphene-based switches and devices can be woven into already-existing networking systems, allowing for faster and more efficient communication without completely tearing down the infrastructures already in place. “The basic switch element showcased by Ericsson at (the) Mobile World Congress 2018 aims to be a significant step toward enabling a wide range of advanced services over a feature-rich optical network while keeping the overall cost low, increase transmission capacity, and reduce latency to the benefit of the telecom operators and their customers,” asserts Antonio D’Errico, Senior Researcher at Ericsson.

The 25-Gb/s-per-channel communications rate can open up significant new applications. Currently, 25-Gb/s connectivity is offered by the 25-Gigabit-Ethernet standard but is primarily limited to the data center environment. If Graphene Flagship can bring costs down significantly and extend the reach of higher communication data rates throughout the network, it could provide the bandwidth-immersive virtual reality, the pervasive Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence that all will demand. The addition of multiple channels to boost bandwidth even further could help the data center keep up with the overall demand for increased bandwidth.

“5G will all be about optical communications, and the realization of the ultra-fast optical communication link with graphene is a real breakthrough,” said Professor Frank Kloppens , the Scientific Chair of the Graphene Pavilion at this year’s Mobile World Congress. This might just be the breakthrough that we need to get the network ready for the next generation of immersive applications.