319 Terabits – Great Scott! Boffins In Japan Speed Along Information Superhighway At New World Record

Japanese researchers have broken the world record for the fastest internet speed by transmitting data at 319 terabits per second (Tbps) using modern day compatible fibre optical cable, according to the country's primary comms research institute.

The 3,001km (1,864 miles) optical fibre was designed by engineers at the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) Network Research Institute.

The boffins used 4 cores within the fibre to transmit the data, and applied wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM), allowing multiple wavelengths to be sent simultaneously over a single strand of fibre. The individual WDM channels, numbering 552 in this case, were then modulated to form multiple signal sequences at alternate intervals.

The team employed a band that has never before been used for long distance transmissions, the S-band (1,460-1,530nm), alongside the usual C and L-bands.

• The good optics of silicon photonics: Light sailing serenely down a fibre
• Cisco intros desktop switches, one with USB-C to power your laptop
• Record-breaking Aussie boffins send 44.2 terabits a second screaming down 75km of fiber from single chip
• Cisco slips on a Tolkien ring: One chip design to rule them all, one design to find them. One design to bring them all...

Every 70km of the experimental set-up, the signal was subjected to amplifiers doped with rare earth ions, some with thulium, others with erbium. The boffins also used Raman amplification distributed along the transmission fibre itself to boost the signal.

The researchers said the system was compatible with modern-day infrastructure and shouldn't take long to adopt because the fibre still has a standard outer diameter of 0.125mm.

But while it may look like your normal fibre from the outside, the transmission rate is 79 per cent faster than the previous world record set at University College London (UCL) in August 2020 with a data transmission rate of 178Tbps.

While these fibres won't be making it into homes any time soon, they'll likely benefit the wider networking structure.

In their canned statement, NICT said:

The results of this experiment were published at the International Conference on Optical Fiber Communication in June and announced in English this week. ®