STATE COLLEGE, Pa., Nov. 28 (UPI) --
U.S. engineers are working to increase the data transmission rate
of Category-7 copper cables used to connect computers to each other and the
Internet.
"Working with NEXANS, the company that manufactures the cable,
we have examined the possibility of sending digital data at a rate of 100
gigabits per second over 100 meters of Category-7 copper cable," said
Pennsylvania State University Professor Mohsen Kavehrad.
Category-7
copper cables are used to connect computers within a room or a building or to
create parallel computing systems, the researchers said. While the long distance
lines of most Internet systems are glass fiber optic cables, which are very
fast, copper cables are generally used for short distances.
The engineers
modeled the cable with all its attributes including modeling crosstalk. They
then designed a transmitter/receiver equipped with an interference canceler that
could transfer up to 100 gigabits using error correcting and equalizing
approaches.
"A rate of 100 gigabit over 70 meters is definitely possible,
and we are working on extending that to 100 meters, or about 328 feet," graduate
student Ali Enteshari said.
Enteshari presented the research in Atlanta
earlier this month during a meeting of the IEEE High Speed Study
Group.
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