Project aims to avert internet capacity crunch

According to Aston, the rise in the use of mobile networks and remote devices, such as smart phones and tablets, has increased the strain on current communication networks. If this increase in demand exceeds existing bandwidth limit, a so-called capacity crunch is predicted that could impact on the future growth of the internet.

Aston University Professor, Andrew Ellis is leading the Petabit Energy Aware Capacity Enhancement (PEACE) project to improve bandwidth and reduce energy consumption on major optical fibre networks, which carry over 99 per cent of all network data.

The project team believe that by using a balance of digital, analogue electronic and optical processing, they can transmit signals over an optical fibre with enough bandwidth to simultaneously support a million mobile phones operating at the same time while also halving energy consumption of optical transponders.

This could fundamentally improve the speed and quality of service provided to the 17.6 million UK mobile internet users and over 70 per cent of UK households who have broadband access.