Petabits/sec, and the like

[Robert G. Brown]

On Thu, 6 Nov 2003, Chris Samuel wrote:

> Part of a CSIRO webpage on the project, if it were to be located in Western 
> Australia, says:
> 
> http://www.atnf.csiro.au/projects/ska/general/lofar.html
> 
> [quote]
> 
> Specific technologies that would be developed for LOFAR in WA include:
> 
>  * The construction of a 6 terabit/second optic-fibre link from the heart of 
> inland WA to coastal Geraldton. This is a higher data-rate than systems in 
> general use today. LOFAR would therefore represent a non-commercial test-bed 
> for developing technologies. 

On a second thought, I suspect that the OF link is going to be
delivering real time analog data.  This is very similar to a plan for an
even bigger radiotelescope that I've had for years -- one that spans a
continent, or even continents.  The key to making a radiotelescope is
being able to deliver realtime traces of the received signals with very
precise time/phase delay information to a centralized location where the
traces can be recombined and used to create an interference projection
of the sky.  Perhaps they're going to digitize the signal(s) first, but
I don't see why they would offhand.

   rgb

-- 
Robert G. Brown	                       http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/
Duke University Dept. of Physics, Box 90305
Durham, N.C. 27708-0305
Phone: 1-919-660-2567  Fax: 919-660-2525     email:rgb at phy.duke.edu



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