Data Storage  

A major step in the development of digital data storage that is capable of surviving for billions of years has been made. Using nanostructured glass, scientists have developed the recording and retrieval processes of five dimensional (5D) digital data by femtosecond laser writing.

Researchers at the University of Southampton have made a development in the field of of digital data storage that may be capable of surviving for billions of years.

Using nanostructured glass, scientists from the University’s Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) have developed the recording and retrieval processes of five dimensional (5D) digital data by femtosecond laser writing.

"It is thrilling to think that we have created the technology to preserve documents and information and store it in space for future generations."

The storage solution allows unprecedented properties including 360 TB/disc data capacity, thermal stability up to 1,000°C and virtually unlimited lifetime at room temperature (13.8 billion years at 190°C ) opening a new era of eternal data archiving.

The technology could be highly useful for organisations with big archives, such as national archives, museums and libraries, to preserve their information and records and could also be used for very stable and safe form of portable memory.

The technology was first experimentally demonstrated in 2013 when a 300 kb digital copy of a text file was successfully recorded in 5D. Now the researchers have further developed their 'Superman’ memory crystal.'

Now, major documents from human history such as Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Newton’s Opticks, Magna Carta and Kings James Bible, have been saved as digital copies that could survive the human race. A copy of the UDHR encoded to 5D data storage was recently presented to UNESCO by the ORC at the International Year of Light (IYL) closing ceremony in Mexico.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights recorded into 5D optical data

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The documents were recorded using ultrafast laser, producing extremely short and intense pulses of light. The file is written in three layers of nanostructured dots separated by five micrometres (one millionth of a metre). The self-assembled nanostructures change the way light travels through glass, modifying polarisation of light that can then be read by combination of optical microscope and a polariser, similar to that found in Polaroid sunglasses.

Coined as the ‘Superman memory crystal’, as the glass memory has been compared to the “memory crystals” used in the Superman films, the data is recorded via self-assembled nanostructures created in fused quartz. The information encoding is realised in five dimensions: the size and orientation in addition to the three dimensional position of these nanostructures.

Professor Peter Kazansky, from the ORC, says: “It is thrilling to think that we have created the technology to preserve documents and information and store it in space for future generations. This technology can secure the last evidence of our civilisation: all we’ve learnt will not be forgotten.”

The researchers will present their research at the photonics industry's renowned SPIE Photonics West—The International Society for Optical Engineering Conference in San Francisco, USA this week. The invited paper, ‘5D Data Storage by Ultrafast Laser Writing in Glass’ will be presented by the team.

SOURCE  University of Southampton

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 Internet  

Researchers have developed a new mathematically-based technique that can boost internet data speeds by up to ten times, making nodes of a network much smarter and more adaptable. The advance also vastly improves the security of data transmissions, and may impact the future of 5G mobile networks, satellite communications and the Internet of Things.

In a case of life imitating art, a team of researchers has essentially reproduced the technology of the final episode of the television show Silicon Valley. The new study has shown that mathematical equations can make Internet communication via computer, mobile phone or satellite many times faster and more secure than today. Results with software developed by researchers from Aalborg University in collaboration with the US universities the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and California Institute of Technology (Caltech) are attracting international attention.

The technology uses a four minute long mobile video as an example. The method used by the Danish and US researchers in the study resulted in the video being downloaded five times faster than current state-of-the-art technology. The video also streamed without interruptions. In comparison, the original video got stuck 13 times along the way.

"This has the potential to change the entire market. In experiments with our network coding of Internet traffic, equipment manufacturers experienced speeds that are five to ten times faster than usual."

"This has the potential to change the entire market. In experiments with our network coding of Internet traffic, equipment manufacturers experienced speeds that are five to ten times faster than usual. And this technology can be used in satellite communication, mobile communication and regular Internet communication from computers," says Frank Fitzek, Professor in the Department of Electronic Systems and one of the pioneers in the development of network coding.

Internet communication formats data into packets. Error control ensures that the signal arrives in its original form, but it often means that it is necessary to send some of the packets several times and this slows down the network. The Danish and US researchers instead are solving the problem with a special kind of network coding that utilizes clever mathematics to store and send the signal in a different way. The advantage is that errors along the way do not require that a packet be sent again. Instead, the upstream and downstream data are used to reconstruct what is missing using a mathematical equation.

"With the old systems you would send packet 1, packet 2, packet 3 and so on. We replace that with a mathematical equation. We don’t send packets. We send a mathematical equation. You can compare it with cars on the road. Now we can do without red lights. We can send cars into the intersection from all directions without their having to stop for each other. This means that traffic flows much faster," explains Fitzek.

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Network coding has a large application field for Internet of Things (IoT), 5G communication systems, software defined networks (SDN), content centric networks (CCN), and besides transport also implication on distributed storage solutions.

In order for this to work, however, the data is coded and decoded with the patented technology. The professor and two of his former students from Aalborg University, developers Janus Heide and Morten Videbæk Pedersen, along with the US colleagues, founded the software company Steinwurf.

The company makes the RLNC technology (Random Linear Network Coding) available to hardware manufacturers and they are in secret negotiations that will bring the improvements to consumers. As part of the effort Steinwurf has established an office in Silicon Valley but the company is still headquartered in Aalborg.

"I think the technology will be integrated in most products because it has some crucial and necessary functions. The only thing that can stop the development is patents. Previously, individual companies had a solid grip on patents for coding. But our approach is to make it as accessible as possible. Among other things, we are planning training courses in these technologies," says Fitzek.



SOURCE  Aalborg University

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