OPTIMIZED SYSTEMS

100 Terabits per Second Speed Sets Fiber Optics Record

Rebecca Kutzer-Rice | Date: 05-11-11 | Comments

Recently, two separate research groups achieved fiber optic speeds of over 100 terabits per second. That's the equivalent of downloading thousands of HD-quality videos in a single second.

Lured by the promise of faster speeds and cheaper prices, many companies have been switching to fiber optic technology, which is becoming commonplace around the globe. Recently, a fiber optics breakthrough has set a new world record�an incredibly fast speed of 100 terabits per second. That's equal to downloading nearly three months' worth of HD video in just one second.

At the Optical Fiber Communications Conference in Los Angeles last month, two independent research groups reported passing the 100-terabit limit: NEC Laboratories in Princeton, N.J., and Tokyo's National Institute of Information and Communications Technology.

The research groups developed two new ways to use fiber optic cables to achieve record-breaking speeds.

Researcher Dayou Qian from NEC reported a record-breaking rate of 101.7 terabits per second through 165 kilometers of fiber. In this experiment, researchers pulled light pulses from nearly 400 separate lasers into a single pulse for the receiver. Each laser contained several light amplitudes, allowing many packets of information to be coded simultaneously.

In a statement, Ting Wang of NEC called the results "a critical milestone in fiber capacity."

Jun Sakaguchi of the Tokyo group used a different method and reported speeds of up to 109 terabits per second. While today's fibers contain just one light-directing core, the team created a fiber with seven cores, each of which could carry 15.6 terabits per second.

"We introduced a new dimension, spatial multiplication, to increasing transmission capacity," Sakaguchi says.

These lab results are much higher than capacities needed today. According Telegeography Research, capacity between New York and Washington, D.C., is only a few terabits per second.

However, there may soon be higher demands. "Traffic has been growing about 50 percent a year for the last few years,� Tim Strong, of Telegeography Research, told New Scientist. Such increases are largely due to video streaming and downloading.

In addition to this lack of need, the new technologies are also difficult to incorporate into today's infrastructure, so these high-capacity fibers won't be on the market anytime soon. According to researchers, the massive server farms used by companies Google, Facebook and Amazon will probably be the first to need and use such high-speed capabilities.