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Downloading
on the net just got superfast – terabits/sec fast!
Imagine
downloading your favorite flick in 31 thousandths of a second. Such mind-boggling
internet speeds are now a reality, with researchers rolling out a 255 terabits
per second fiberoptic network which could transport the entire Internet on a
single cable.
RT.com
reports the cable, the joint effort of Dutch and US scientists, is 2,550 times
faster than the fastest single-fiber links in commercial operation today. In
real terms, it could transfer a 1 GB movie in 0.03 milliseconds or the entire contents
of your 1 terabit hard drive in about 31 milliseconds. At
this speed, a single fiber optic cable could theoretically carry the all the
data on the internet at peak times.
But
how does it work?
Researchers
from Eindhoven University of Technology and the University of Central Florida
employed a well-known but still cost-prohibitive technology; multi-mode fiber.
Normal
fibre optic cables contain thousands of strands of glass or plastic fibre which
are slightly thicker than the thread of a needle. These fibers can, in essence,
only carry the light for a single laser.
The
multi-mode fiber used by the researchers in contrast, has seven distinct cores
in a hexagonal shape which are able to carry just as many distinct signals at
one time. What’s more, they are squeezed down into the size of the same kind of
fiber optic cables used to support the current transatlantic internet cables.
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In
layman’s terms, it is something akin to a one way road being stretched out into
a seven lane highway. This seven lane highway is then stretched into a
multi-tier freeway, much like the so-called LA 'Stack'. Except in this case,
it’s like a seven lane, multi-story drag race, with all the power from the
individual vehicles being directed into a single source.
Researchers
said that this new type of optical fibre is like "allowing
21 times more bandwidth than currently available in communication
networks," which is 4-8 Terabits per second standard.
Moreover,
the researchers have introduced "two additional orthogonal
dimensions for data transportation - as if three cars can drive on top of each
other in the same lane."
In
their test, the researchers managed to reach speeds of 5.1 terabits for each of
the seven carriers. Then, by using wavelength division multiplexing (WDM), which
allows a number of optical carrier signals onto a single optical wire, they
managed to cram 50 carriers down the seven cores, reaching the massive 255
terabit per second speed.
Measuring
less than 200 microns in diameter, the new fiber does not take noticeably more
space than conventional fibres already deployed, Dr. Chigo Okonkwo who led the
work explained.
“These remarkable results,
supported by the European Union Framework 7, MODEGAP, definitely give the
possibility to achieve petabits per second transmission, which is the focus of
the European Commission in the coming seven-year Horizon 2020 research
program,” Okonkwo said.
Research
results were recently published in the journal Nature Photonics.
While
the technology for multi-mode fiber is in place, the price tag on replacing the
millions of miles of existing cables could put the upgrade off for decades.
But with the
mind-blistering implications of a world wide web operating at thousands of
times its current maximum speed, the cost of holding off on the upgrade for too
long may be incalculable.
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