An EU-funded research body has been demonstrating the potential of high-frequency wireless, including 10Gb/s connections that operate over a kilometre - and in the rain.

The snappily-named "Integrated Photonic mm-Wave functions for Broadband Connectivity", or IPHOBAC, has been spending EU money developing components for wireless connections in the extra-high frequency (EHF) bands running 30 to 300GHz - making 60GHz connections a reliable and cheap way to link up those lacking ADSL-supporting infrastructure.

But most interesting is the use of 60GHz for data, which has been field trialled and demonstrated to provide reliable connectivity at 10Gb/s in 25mm/hour of rain over a link of 1km. Even in atypical conditions connectivity can be maintained, as Andreas Stöhr told PolicyTracker: "In an even worse case, rain of 85mm an hour, which is the worst storm you have ever experienced, we can guarantee 99.9999% availability at up to 600 metres".

In Northern Europe, rainfall tends to peak around 40mm, putting radio attenuation of 60GHz in the region of 14dB/km, from rainfall, so the technology is very applicable if one can get the transmitters and receivers in place. Even with considerable attenuation, IPHOBAC reckons that sustaining 3Gb/s should be easy enough, and that should support high definition television.

60GHz is attractive as it's already approved for unlicensed use in the USA and Japan, and Ofcom is considering making it similarly unrestricted in the UK. The explosive growth of applications at 2.4GHz demonstrates how quickly a frequency can be exploited in the right market conditions, though 60GHz will be limited to line-of-sight deployments. Having created technology for exploiting even higher frequencies, IPHOBAC is now exploring the potential offered by 300GHz connections, though such connections would likely be very short range.

The idea that 60GHz can be exploited, licence-free, for connecting rural communities is very nice - and good for garnering EU funds - but the reality will probably be greater competition in cities where user-density is high enough to make deployment cost-effective. Unless, that is, the UK government is serious about 2Gb/s for all - in which case, IPHOBAC could be a timely development. ®

Related stories

• Electro/photonic 'Excitonic' cryo-computing breakthrough (28 September 2009)
• Cal Tech, Berkeley and UCSB working on 'iPhoD' (10 August 2009)
• Boffins build 'slow glass' light-trapping nanodoughnut (10 March 2009)
• Breakthrough paint blocks top-end spectrum (20 January 2009)
• CE giants pitch yet another wireless HD standard (23 July 2008)
• Ofcom wants to see more unlicensed frequencies (5 December 2007)
• Comment Bluetooth SIG backs Wi-Fi as fast WPAN choices proliferate (8 November 2007)
• Ofcom consults on unlicensed radio (12 April 2007)
• WirelessHD's 60GHz platform could spark standards war (6 November 2006)