Australian scientists developed an optical chip capable of incredible transfer speeds on an optical network. In a 76.6-kilometer long optic cable, they achieved a 44 thousand times faster speed than Google Fiber
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The Internet world recently broke a new speed record. A team of Australian experts achieved an incredible achievement when they performed the so far fastest data transfer from a single optical chip. The speed was almost unbelievable – 44.2 Tb/s which is about 5.525 TB/s.
40,000 Times Faster Than Google Fiber
Such a speed is more than 44 times faster the fastest Internet speed that is at least theoretically available to regular customers. The record fell mostly because the scientists used a new type of an optical chip. The key to success was an optical device of a micro-comb type. And it was the first time this chip was tested outside of the laboratory. The device is capable of supplementing 80 individual infrared lasers which each would have been used as an individual communication channel.
The record-holding team is made from experts from three Australian universities – Monash, Swinburne and RMIT. The new technology was tested thanks to optical cables that have a length of 76.6 kilometers and connect two university campuses in Melbourne. And to repeat myself, but the speed of 44.2 Tb/s is truly incredible. The current fastest Internet available commercially is Google Fiber which transfers data at a speed of 1Gb/s. And the fastest internet network ran is ran by the American ministry of energy US DOE and it calls it ESnet. It is used by key American scientific organizations such as NASA. And it is fast but with a transfer speed of 400 Gb/s, it stays far behind the Australian experiment.
The thing that is truly incredible is the fact that the scientists reached such speeds using current infrastructure. This means once these photonic chips become available it will be possible to reach these speeds on commercial networks. Though it will take some time before this happens.
As the research lead, Arnan Mitchell from RMIT University said – soon they would like to create integrated photonic chips which will allow us to reach similar speeds in existing optical networks with minimal investment. Such technology should be at first mostly attractive for ultra-fast communication among datacenters. Nonetheless, Mitchell and his colleagues believe that in time, these technologies will simplify and get cheaper so one day they become available to the public as well.
Sources:
- https://www.monash.edu/news/articles/australian-researchers-record-worlds-fastest-internet-speed-from-a-single-optical-chip
- https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-16265-x
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