In information technology, multiplexing schemes are used to transmit more signals than the number of available transmission channels. Researchers at ETH in Zurich have invented a novel method whereby information is encoded in the correlated noise between spatially separated light waves.
To send as much information as possible from A to B at the same time, scientists and engineers have developed increasingly sophisticated techniques over the past decades. Those techniques, generally known as multiplexing, allow one to transmit more signals than the number of available transmission channels. A typical example for this is radio broadcasting on different frequencies. Scientists at ETH in Zurich have now invented a novel multiplexing technique that is based on noise – something that one typically tries to avoid.
Read more at ETH Zurich
Image: The new coding technology developed by ETH researchers makes it possible to make better use of the transmission capacity of optical fibres. (Photograph: Groman123/flickr.com, CC BY-SA 2.0)