A team of researchers at three Australian universities has set a record for data transmission over optical fibers. The experiment shows how fast the Internet can become with the fiber optic cables that are already widely used.
An optical fiber carries large amounts of data in the form of bursts of infrared light from up to 80 lasers, each with its own wavelength. If the speed is to be increased, more cables are needed that can transfer the data in parallel but separately from each other.
In the experiment, the researchers used a single light chip to create hundreds of channels.
The chip uses so-called “micro-comb” technology, which divides the infrared part of the light spectrum into a kind of rainbow of individual channels, each of which acts like a laser device.
In the experiment, the researchers sent 44.2 terabits per second through an optical fiber they had laid from Monash University to RMIT University, or 76.6 km. The speed was thus 250,000 times higher than the world’s fastest internet connection, which can be found in Singapore.
The Covid crisis showed the need
The coronavirus crisis has put a lot of strain on the fiber optic network, due to how many people have been working remotely from their homes.
This high internet usage led, among other things, to the fact that internet providers such as Netflix in Europe had to reduce the video quality in broadcasts for a while.
1,000 movies in HD quality. That’s how much data a fiber optic cable can send over a fiber optic cable in one second.
But this problem will be solved when micro-comb light chips come into general use, the researchers say.
However, they expect that initially the technology will be mainly used to increase the speed of communication between large users, such as research institutes, but up to five years will pass before ordinary Internet users can take advantage of this greatly increased speed.
