The BBC is reporting that researchers from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany have set a new data rate speed record. The new data rate speed record is 26 terabits per second down 50km of optical fiber. Professor Wolfgang Freude, a co-author of the paper in Nature Photonics told the BBC how they set the new speed record.
The trick is to use what is known as a “fast Fourier transform” which separates a single laser beam into 300 colors and encodes data in each different color. Professor Freude and his colleagues have instead worked out how to create comparable data rates using just one laser with exceedingly short pulses. Within these pulses are a number of discrete colors of light in what is known as a “frequency comb”. When the pulses are sent into an optical fiber, the different colors can mix together and create 325 different colors in total, each of which can be encoded with its own data stream according to the article.
At the receiving end, the researchers implemented an optical fast Fourier transform to receive the data streams, based on the times that the different parts of the beam arrive, and at what intensity. The authors of the paper say the technique can be easily integrated into existing silicon photonics technology. The story says that stringing together all the data in the different colors turns into the simpler problem of organizing data that essentially arrive at different times.
Professor Freude told the BBC that the current design outperforms earlier approaches simply by moving all the time delays further apart and that it is a technology that could be integrated onto a silicon chip – making it a better candidate for scaling up to commercial use.
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So what does it mean to transfer 26 terabits per second over fiber optic cable? Reportedly the contents of nearly 1,000 high-definition DVDs could be transmitted down an optical fiber in a second – or the entire Library of Congress collections could be sent in 10 seconds. Since the LOC already has a home in Washington DC, more likely uses of these new technologies will be applications like cloud computing, virtual reality, and 3-D Hi-definition TV.
Just last year I wrote about Intel Corp’s. (INTC) efforts in this domain and noted that “1 terabit per second link could transfer the entire printed collection of the Library of Congress in 1.5 minutes.”
Related articles
- 109-Terabit Broadband Test Breaks Records, Engages Geek Envy (pcworld.com)
- Researchers achieve 26 terabits/s over optical fiber (geek.com)
Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.