Researchers at Aston University in Birmingham, England have managed to send data 4.5 million times faster than the average home internet. This makes it the fastest ever sent by a single, standard optical fiber.
The record rate was achieved as part of an international collaboration, also involving the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology in Japan, and Nokia Bell Labs in the USA. They measured a speed of 301 terabits, or 301,000,000 megabits, per second over a single, standard optical fiber.
The scientists used something called optical fibers – small tubular strands of glass that pass information using light. Copper cables can’t carry data at such speeds.
In order to achieve the unprecedented speed, they opened up new “wavelength bands”. These bands are equivalent to different colors of light being transmitted down the optical fiber. The team developed new devices called optical amplifiers and optical gain equalizers to access these new wavelength bands.
Hopefully that just about makes sense. If you are an expert in this, here is Dr Phillips, who led the development of a at Aston University, to put it in proper technical terms: “Alongside the commercially available C and L-bands, we used two additional spectral bands called E-band and S-band. Such bands traditionally haven’t been required because the C- and L-bands could deliver the required capacity to meet consumer needs.
“Over the last few years Aston University has been developing optical amplifiers that operate in the E-band, which sits adjacent to the C-band in the electromagnetic spectrum but is about three times wider. Before the development of our device, no one had been able to properly emulate the E-band channels in a controlled way.”
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Professor Wladek Forysiak was also central to the project. He described it as a “groundbreaking accomplishment” that “highlights the crucial role of advancing optical fiber technology in revolutionizing communication networks for faster and more reliable data transmission.”
A wider choice in fiber optic could also help keep the cost of internet down for future customers, as well as being more environmentally friendly.
“Growing system capacity by using more of the available spectrum – not just the conventional C-band but also other bands such as the L, S and now E-bands can help to keep the cost of providing this bandwidth down.
“It is also a ‘greener solution’ than deploying more, newer fibers and cables since it makes greater use of the existing deployed fiber network, increasing its capacity to carry data and prolonging its useful life & commercial value.”
This fiber could be the future of the internet, but want to look – or rather listen – to what it was like back in the early days? Check out the video below.
