Tag Archives: Taara

Google’s Next Generation of Light-based Broadband

Mahesh Krishnaswamy of Alphabet X announced the development of its next generation of light-based broadband transmission. Google uses the brand name Taara for the technology. Google has already deployed the first generation of the technology in hundreds of high-speed light links around the world, in places where it was impractical or too expensive to install fiber.

The new breakthrough being announced is that Google has reduced the technology to a chip. The first generation device used a complicated set of movable mirrors to steer the light signal, but the new chip does this electronically. The first generation device was the size of a traffic-light, but the new one is described as being the size of a fingernail.

The new chip uses light that is below the visible range. Each chip contains hundreds of tiny light emitters, and the software can control each individually with great precision. Lab tests of the chip have been able to deliver 10 Gbps speed for about a kilometer. Google believes the practical distance for the technology will be as far as about twelve miles, carrying up to 20 Gbps. Google hopes to make the chip commercially available in 2026.

It’s not hard to envision uses for the technology. One of the first trials was to beam data across the Congo River, where fiber was not a practical alternative. I can think of dozens of places in fiber networks where light-beams could be a huge cost-saver. Picture using this technology to connect to rural homes that are set back from the road. This could solve the cost and delays of crossing bridges and railroad tracks. This seems like a natural technology to use in cities to create a network between buildings. Bring a 100 GB fiber connection to one tall building and serve multiple other buildings without additional fiber.

The concept of using light for data transmission has been around for a decade, generally described under the general term Li-Fi. The primary vision for Li-Fi has been an indoor technology for beaming superfast broadband within the home of office. There was also talk about using Li-Fi as the best way to communicate between cars on the road. A few companies have developed Li-Fi devices, but the technology never gained any serious traction in the market. There has been a lot of research on Li-Fi technology by the military for providing fast broadband on the battlefield.

There are several natural limitations for using light to send data, particularly outdoors. Light requires a pure line of sight and is deflected by trees and bushes. Outdoor events like rain, fog, snow, and birds will disrupt the signal. Just like with radio signals, light dissipates over distance, and the signal gets weaker as the distance between transmitter and receiver increases. Google says it is working on ways to minimize the impact of weather. Indoor use would require deploying multiple devices to see into each room where you want broadband – no closed doors allowed.

The real benefit for this technology comes if Google can make the chips affordable. It’s not hard to envision a light mesh network delivering gigabit speeds to a small town without the need to build a wired network. Nobody has light-based broadband networks on their broadband bingo card – but in a few years it might become a viable option.

Google Moonshot Delivering Wireless Backhaul

You may recall a number of years ago when Google experimented with delivering broadband from balloons in an effort labeled Project Loon. The project was eventually dropped, but a remnant of the project has now resurfaced as Taara – broadband delivered terrestrially by lasers.

Project Loon functioned by beaming broadband from dirigible to receivers on the ground, and Taara sprung out of the idea of using those same lasers for terrestrial broadband. Taara claims to be able to beam as much as 20 gigabits for 20 kilometers (12 miles). While that is impressive, the important claim is that the hardware is affordable and easy to install and align.

The Taara effort came out of the effort by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin to form a division to work on moonshots – ideas that are futuristic sounding, but that could someday make the world a radically better place. This resulted in the creation of X, the parent of Taara, which is the laboratory in charge of the moonshot ideas.

Taara sees this technology as a way to increase broadband access in areas with little or no broadband access. This is also envisioned as a technology that can provide better backhaul to cell towers and ISP hub sites. The most promising use of the technology is to bring a high-speed connection to the many small villages around the world that aren’t connected to broadband.

The X website includes several case studies of the technology. In the Congo, the radios were used to beam broadband across the Congo River to make a connection between Brazzaville and Kinshasa. This was a 4.8 kilometer radio hop that is far less expensive than building a fiber route by road of almost 400 kilometers. Within the first 20 days after the connection, the backhaul connection through Taara carried almost 700 terabytes of data.

https://x.company/blog/posts/taara-beaming-broadband-across-congo/

Taara has already been deployed in thirteen countries, and Taara is working with major players to quickly expand the use of the technology. This includes deals with the Econet Group and its subsidiary Liquid Telecom in Africa, the ISP Bluetown in India, and Digicel in the Pacific Islands. Taara is also now working with Bharti Airtel, one of the largest telecom providers in India to ramp up distribution. India has hundreds of thousands of small villages that could be candidates for the technology.

In Africa, the roll-out of the technology started in Kenya, working with Liquid Telecom and the Econet Group. The radios are perceived as the best way to build backhaul in places where it is challenging or dangerous to build fiber networks, such as across rivers, across national parks, or in post-conflict zones.

https://x.company/blog/posts/bringing-light-speed-internet-to-sub-saharan-africa/

There are still 2 billion people on the planet who are not connected to the Internet, and in most cases, one of the primary impediments to expanding Internet services is the lack of affordable and reliable backhaul. The Taara lasers seem like a solution to bring broadband to a huge number of places that have lacked connectivity.