A team of researchers from Japan has set a new world record for internet data transmission speed.
Using commercially available optical fiber, the team achieved a data rate of 402 terabits per second (402 Tbps), about 1.6 million times faster than the average broadband speed in the United States.
High speed data transmission is possible with fiber optic cable.
Led by the Photonic Networking Laboratory at Japan's National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), the team was able to achieve this feat by building a system that covers all transmission bands of standard optical fibers, as well as deploying various amplification technologies.
NICT claims that this new approach allows them to access previously unused wavelength bands, which could be put to use in future telecommunications networks. “This newly developed technology is expected to make a significant contribution to expanding the communication capacity of optical communication infrastructure as the demand for future data transmission services rapidly increases,” NICT said in a statement summarizing its research.
With the data rate set by the Japanese research team at 402 Tbps, users can imagine that it would allow downloading 12,500 movies in just one second. That's three times the number of movies currently available on Netflix.
Results obtained in laboratory only.
Researchers at NICT have ambitions to eventually extend the transmission range to vast, transoceanic distances, but will need to be cautious about the immediate results of this achievement. While standard optical fiber was used to set the new world record, it was achieved in an optimized laboratory setting. Much more research and a lot of resources will be needed to bring the breakthrough data transmission to the real world, even partially.
