Full speed ahead! Fiber optics never cease to provide surprises in the hands of researchers who continue trying to push its use far beyond the limits it has demonstrated so far. A team made up of experts from different countries around the world has just surpassed the world record and has done so overwhelmingly.
A single fiber optic cable. That is the challenge posed by the world record that has just been surpassed and, on top of that, in such a forceful way that it may take us a while to report news like this again. Until now, the fiber optic transmission test had reached a record of 10.66 petabits per second. But what they have achieved now is more than double.
Mission achieved
This new study aimed at demonstrating that fiber optics still has many surprises to offer has been carried out by a collaborative team between several teams. Thus, researchers from the NICT (Japanese National Institute of Information and Communications Technology), the University of L'Aquila in Italy and the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands have taken part in the feat.
Together they wanted to surpass the previous record and raise the bar to leave everyone and everyone with their mouths open. And it must be recognized that they have achieved it, since the speed level they have reached in transmission has been 22.9 petabits per second. To achieve this, they have put into practice various concepts, but the bulk of their success lies in having combined several techniques and tools, such as WDM data channels and SDM transmission.
Taking fiber to the next level
The work that these researchers have carried out has not been motivated simply by leaving an important mark when it comes to the history of fiber optics. They acknowledge that they are aware that, increasingly, traffic demands on the Internet are increasing and that will mean that fiber will have to continue pushing its limits further so that services continue to be offered in an adequate manner. They see how the market is advancing in giant steps and how the demands are increasingly higher and they wanted to ensure that fiber optics could be ready to respond to this growing demand and requirement. By doubling the transmission speed, I am sure they have been more than satisfied, since it is a great advance.
To break down those walls that they had encountered until now, what the researchers have done is to resort to a new fiber optic cable that has the peculiarity of having capacity for multiple channels. This helps to increase the supported bandwidth and speed levels to expand above what was expected. The best and most important thing is that the study has shown that, although in the tests they have reached a maximum of 22.9 petabits per second, the truth is that the maximum capacity they could achieve would be 24.7 petabits.
If you want to get an idea of what the use of this new technology would mean for fiber speeds, we can tell you that it represents a capacity about 1,000 times greater than optical fiber as we are currently using it. Therefore, we are facing a significant qualitative leap that will allow society to keep up with the speed demands that we are going to have over time.
For now, yes, it will still take us a while to see this type of technology on the streets. First, a significant investment in infrastructure will be necessary to make it possible to use this new generation, higher performance optical fiber. It will be the future of fiber as we know it today, but it is still a long way from being able to use it. Possibly, when the Internet and home networks require those levels of speed, it is most likely that it will not take long for us to see these cables begin to be installed. Until then we have the good news of seeing that speed records continue to be broken.