Download all Netflix movies in one second.
Imagine the opportunity: download your entire Netflix movie library in less than a second. Unfortunately, real users won’t see this anytime soon, but scientists and specialists from the UK and Japan have set a new record for the speed of data transmission over the Internet using a fiber optic channel. The indicator was 178 Tbit / s or 178 million Mbit / s.
In comparison, the fastest commercially available Internet today is used in Japan. There, the connection speed can reach 10 Gbps. Even the high-speed computing network of the Energy Sciences Network, which serves the scientists of the US Department of Energy and its employees around the world, is capable of delivering only 400 Gbps at its peak.
Scientists and engineers from Japan’s KDDI Research, University College London, and Xtera’s Submarine Communications Cable Installation Service set a new data rate record. Together they have developed new technologies that allow more data to be transferred using existing fiber optic infrastructure.
In most cases, the current capabilities of fiber optics allow transmitting a signal with a frequency of up to 4.5 THz, some innovative solutions, which are just beginning to be introduced in commercial operation, allow increasing the bandwidth to 9 THz. In turn, the new system allows to transmit signals with a frequency of 16.8 THz.
To set a record in the data transmission speed, specialists have applied various technologies to amplify the signal power, based on the geometric modulation method of the constellation of signals. Allows you to minimize the possibility of signal distortion during transmission by using patterns of signal combinations that allow you to more effectively use the phase, brightness, and polarization properties of light, as well as manipulate each length of single wave.
Since this technology can use existing fiber optic infrastructure to operate, it will be much easier and cheaper to integrate for commercial use than other experimental developments in this area. It is enough to upgrade the signal amplifiers located at a distance of 40 to 100 km from each other, without changing the fiber optic cables themselves. The researchers explain that the installation of an updated signal amplifier will cost around $ 21,000, and the cost of laying a kilometer of fiber optic cable in an urban setting can reach $ 593,000.
