Setting a world record, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) Corporation successfully demonstrated 100 Gbps wireless transmission using orbital angular momentum (OAM) multiplexing.

NTT is developing OAM technology to enable terabit-class wireless transmission, anticipating the demand for wireless communications expected in the 2030s. In a laboratory set-up, NTT's system showed that dramatic leaps in transmission capacity can be achieved using this new principle of OAM multiplexing combined with widely-used MIMO technology.

NTT demonstrated the wireless transmission at a distance of 10 m using the test OAM system operating at 28 GHz. Eleven data signals, each at a bit rate of 7.2 to 10.8 Gbps, were generated and simultaneously carried by multiple OAM-multiplexed EM waves, achieving a world-first total bit rate of 100 Gbps.

Video: How NTT is dramatically increasing wireless data rates

The results of NTT's experiment reveal the possibility of applying OAM technology to large-capacity wireless transmission, achieving a data rate about 100x that of LTE and Wi-Fi and about 5x that of the emerging 5G standard. Such data rates will contribute to innovative wireless communications technologies for next-generation 5G systems: connected cars, virtual reality/augmented reality (VR/AR), high-definition video transmission and remote medicine.

NTT will present the results of the OAM demonstration at Wireless Technology Park 2018 (WTP2018), to be held 23-25 May, and at the 2018 IEEE 87th Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC2018-Spring), an international conference sponsored by IEEE on 3-6 June.