A team of Australian researchers have set a milestone, a new record for the highest Internet speed ever recorded: 44.2 Tb / sec.
The network test was conducted by various experts from Monash, Swinburne and RMIT (Australia) universities. This incredible achievement was achieved using a single optical chip, from a single light source. The study has stated that for just over an hour, internet speeds at this rate can support high-speed internet connections from more than 1.8 million homes in Melbourne.
The speed test (with which we could get to download 1,000 HD movies in a fraction of a second with those 44.2 terabits per second), was led by Bill Corcoran from Monash University, Arnan Mitchell from RMIT and David Moss from Swinburne. The team claims that its advancement in internet speed will aid in the overall development of the technology.
Normally, data of this magnitude can only be replicated, for the moment, in the laboratory. But, in this study, the researchers achieved this incredible speed by using the existing communications infrastructure where they were able to efficiently test the network.
The backbone of the networks of the future
The device replaces 80 lasers with a single piece of equipment known as a micro comb (smaller and lighter than existing hardware), being the first time that a micro comb has been used in a field test and it achieves the largest amount of data produced from a single optical chip.
“We are currently getting a sneak peek at how the internet infrastructure will manage to sustain itself two to three years from now, due to the unprecedented number of people using the internet for remote work, socialization and streaming. It really shows us that we need to be able to scale the capacity of our Internet connections, “said Bill Corcoran, professor of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering at Monash University and co-author of the study in the journal Nature.
“We have developed something that is scalable to meet future needs,” continues the expert.
The researchers installed 76.6 km of “dark” fiber optics between RMIT’s Melbourne City campus and the Clayton campus of Monash University. Inside they placed the micro-comb, which acts like a rainbow made up of hundreds of high-quality single-chip infrared lasers, each laser functioning as a single communication channel. In this way, the researchers were able to send maximum data for each channel, simulating maximum Internet use, through 4 THz of bandwidth.
High speed benefits
Rapid Internet bandwidth could accelerate the development of effective self-driving car solutions for ultra-speed communications between data centers, and also help build a robust digital education network, to name a few.
“In the long term, we hope to create embedded photonic chips that can achieve this kind of data rate over existing fiber optic links at minimal cost,” Mitchell said. “Micro combs offer us enormous promise to meet the world’s insatiable demand for bandwidth.”
Referencia: Bill Corcoran, Mengxi Tan, Xingyuan Xu, Andreas Boes, Jiayang Wu, Thach G. Nguyen, Sai T. Chu, Brent E. Little, Roberto Morandotti, Arnan Mitchell, David J. Moss. Ultra-dense optical data transmission over standard fibre with a single chip source. Nature Communications, 2020; 11 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-16265-x
