PIC for speeding internet
Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC) for Speeding Internet

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With the internet revolution all around us, have you ever thought about how slow your internet connection is?

For studio/office workers, are you able to upload/download huge files online at a reasonable speed?

For online gamers, are you able to play your games without screen freeze or system crash?

For movie buffs, is your internet speed good enough to download movies in just a few minutes?

Anyhow the majority of the answers must be a NO! Most employees complain of work lag due to delay in online transmission. Gamers tend to quit some of the best online games due to slow processing. It takes most users hours to download a file (movie or other entertainments) just in the size of a few GigaBytes.

To resolve this problem, a new technology called Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC) has been used to increase the internet speed to almost 100 times faster than the existing one. Thus, if you needed 100 minutes to download a movie with the existing connection, you could get it easily in 1 minute or so with the help of PIC!!

To know more about Photonic Integrated Circuit, its comparison with electronic IC’s, applications, advantages and so on, click on the link given below.

TAKE A LOOK : PHOTONIC INTEGRATED CIRCUIT

PIC was first applied for internet services by the researchers at the Centre for Ultra-high Bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS). They were able to develop a switch mechanism using PIC which can increase the internet speed up to almost 100 times. That is in one second you can download a terabit of data.

The good thing is that even with such a big increase in the speed, the price will almost be the same. The PIC also is useful in tracking the speed, and in keeping the information flow error free. The integrity of transmission will also be maintained. Thus, all the elements that are needed to keep the traffic to flowing are maintained well with this technology. The PIC developed is also known to have high efficiency with a life span of ten years. The size of the PIC is also very small.

PIC technology mostly integrates thousands of optical devices like amplifiers, multiplexers, demultiplexers, lasers, attenuators and so on. Till now, most electronic integrated circuits used silicon as the primary fabricating material. But for PIC devices, the fabricating material depends on the application of the device. For the manufacture of PIC chips, a mixture of Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) and Indium Phosphide (InP) is commonly used. The advanced applications of PIC technology has helped engineers pioneer in major fields like biomedical and photonic computing, optical sensor technology and fiber-optic communication. Photonic Integrated Circuit is analogous to train switching from one track to another.

The technology actually works like a scratched piece of glass, in which the scratch works like a switch and guides the path for the information to be sent and received. The track is considered to be very fast and the time taken for the information to change tracks is normally one picoseconds. This is almost same as turning a switch ON and OFF in almost 1 millionth of a second.

The financial support for the development of such a device is given by the Australian Research Council. As soon as the device is fully functional, the developers have decided to license it and later commercialize the technology. Thus, the internet usage will be completely revolutionalized.

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2 Comments

  1. It is not possible in cable/DSL internet connections!!!

    The speed is controlled by the server of the internet service provider (ISP), which my modem is connected to. If I install a PIC based circuit, how it is going to overcome all the throttles set by the ISP?

  2. very good topic. But very difficult to implement in internet services