Beaming Data Holds Promise, With Limits, for Networking Dr. Kavehrad and a colleague, Dr. Svetla Jivkova, have been researching a system that sends pencil-thin infrared beams bouncing around a room, connecting computers to one another and to a central transmitter and receiver that is wired to a larger network. The researchers said the technology could transmit two gigabits a second, or about a thousand times as much data as a cable modem, with few transmission errors.