DARPA begins development of long-haul 100 Gbps systems

Military Research Agency DARPA has announced a competition for the development of a long-distance wireless communication system with a data transfer rate of 100 Gbit / s. The technical task: the claimed data transmission rate at a distance of more than 200 km between the air-to-air stations and more than 100 km between the station in the air and the ground station.

For comparison, the current LTE standard provides a maximum speed of 0.3 Gbps.

The proposed solutions should roughly correspond to the weight and energy parameters of Common Data Link (CDL) and Tactical Common Data Link (TCDL) equipment, which is now used by the US Army, including for transmitting video from unmanned aerial vehicles.

Now relatively small radio transmitters CDL weighing no more than 45 kg are being installed on aircraft, and more portable models have been tested in recent years. The maximum data transfer rate at a distance of 200 km is about 10.7 Mbit / s, and at close distances - about 250 Mbit / s.
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Agency DARPA in the announcement of the competition indicates that the new protocol will be used in military systems, and commercial communications providers. According to the terms of reference, the system should function in all weather conditions, demonstrating a relatively acceptable speed when transmitting data through clouds, fog or rain. DARPA assumes that research teams that will take part in the competition use "the technical advantages of signal modulation in the millimeter frequency range to achieve a speed of 100 Gbit / s."

According to DARPA experts, modern methods of modulating the signal and multiplexing quite allow us to set such ambitious tasks as achieving a speed of 100 Gbit / s for a small radio station with an autonomous power source.

Consideration of applications from applicants for the DARPA grant will be held on January 9, 2013 in the agency's office (on the 6th floor). They are allowed to the discussion and the ordinary public, upon presentation of a passport and proof of citizenship, or after filling out a special form of admission (for foreigners).