Telecommunications

Blistering data transmission record clocks over 1 petabit per second

Blistering data transmission record clocks over 1 petabit per second
Researchers in Japan have broken the data transmission speed record
Researchers in Japan have broken the data transmission speed record
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Researchers in Japan have broken the data transmission speed record
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Researchers in Japan have broken the data transmission speed record
A table comparing the NICT team's last few data transmission breakthroughs
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A table comparing the NICT team's last few data transmission breakthroughs

Researchers in Japan have clocked a new speed record for data transmission – a blistering 1.02 petabits per second (Pb/s). Better yet, the breakthrough was achieved using optical fiber cables that should be compatible with existing infrastructure.

For reference, 1 petabit is equivalent to a million gigabits, meaning this new record is about 100,000 times faster than the absolute fastest home internet speeds available to consumers. Even NASA will “only” get 400 Gb/s when ESnet6 rolls out in 2023. At speeds of 1 Pb/s, you could theoretically broadcast 10 million channels per second of video at 8K resolution, according to the team.

The new record was set by researchers at Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), using several emerging technologies. First, the optical fiber contains four cores – the glass tubes that transmit the signals – instead of the usual one. The transmission bandwidth is extended to a record-breaking 20 THz, thanks to a technology known as wavelength division multiplexing (WDM).

That bandwidth is made up of a total of 801 wavelength channels spread across three bands – the commonly used C- and L-bands, as well as the experimental S-band. With the help of some other new optical amplification and signal modulation technologies, the team achieved the record-breaking speed of 1.02 Pb/s, sending data through 51.7 km (32.1 miles) of optical fiber cables.

A table comparing the NICT team's last few data transmission breakthroughs
A table comparing the NICT team's last few data transmission breakthroughs

This isn’t the first time scientists at NICT have surpassed the 1-Pb/s milestone for data transmission. In December 2020, the team reported a then-record of 1.01 Pb/s, using an optical fiber cable with a single core and data encoded into 15 “modes.” As impressive as the feat was, it required some complex signal processing to unscramble the data, which would mean dedicated integrated circuits would have to be developed and deployed if the tech was ever going to be rolled out on a practical scale.

The new breakthrough is not only faster, but it only transmits data in one mode per core, meaning it can be read by technology already in wide use. To top it all off, the four-core optical fiber cable has the same 0.125-mm diameter as a standard cable, meaning it should be compatible with existing infrastructure and manufacturing processes.

The research was presented at the International Conference on Laser and Electro-Optics 2022 in May.

Source: NICT

3 comments
3 comments
Mark R Windsor
"At speeds of 1 Pb/s, you could theoretically broadcast 10 million channels ***per second?????** of video at 8K resolution."
Please tell me that someone else understands why the unit stated above does not make sense!
James Barbour
"the fiber has four cores" as such, the actual bandwidth is now 250 terabits...still impressive. Four cores will not be found in any network fiber, so the claim of useable on existing network is inaccurate. No household will ever need terabit bandwidth, so fiber to the curb is irrelevant. Great advance in overall speed, but backbone router bandwidth will likely be a limiting factor. Thanks for the update.
Treon Verdery
Update: About June 11, 2024 Newatlas has an item where 22 Pb/second optical fiber data capacity occurs. Possible utilizations of this bandwidth are gathering all the data of 70-90 trillion body cytes and transmitting it to the computation/data cloud for processing. Transhumanists and any person that favors staying alive plural milleniums value backing up the entire state of the human body to recreate and/or restore living form.