A significant milestone has been reached in data transmission technology, with a new speed record set using an existing, commercially installed fibre optic cable. Researchers successfully transmitted data at a rate of 450 terabits per second. This astonishing speed, equivalent to 450,000,000,000,000 bits every second, was achieved through a pair of cables situated beneath the bustling streets of London.
The record-setting effort was led by Polina Bayvel at University College London, working with her colleagues. Their experiment utilized existing fibre optic cables that stretched from their Bloomsbury laboratory to a data centre in Canary Wharf and back again. To put this rate into perspective, the amount of data transmitted per second is sufficient for simultaneously streaming approximately 50 million movies.
Bayvel explained that the achieved data rate is roughly ten times faster than what is currently operational in commercial networks. A widespread implementation of this technology could lead to an increase in internet bandwidth comparable to adding nine new cables alongside each existing one, all without the substantial cost or inconvenience of installing any new cable infrastructure.
While this dramatic leap in data transfer capabilities might exceed the current processing capacity of human internet users, it presents a significant opportunity for the burgeoning field of artificial intelligence. “There’s only a certain amount of data that anyone could process – you can only watch so many movies,” Bayvel commented. “But AI infrastructure is generating a lot of data, and that data is is spewing into the network.”
The development of custom hardware was instrumental in achieving this record. This specially designed equipment enabled data to be transmitted across a broad spectrum of frequencies, ranging from 1264 nanometres to 1617.8 nanometres. This spectrum is considerably wider than that currently employed in commercial networks. Transmitting across these varied frequencies necessitated novel methods for correcting different levels and types of distortion. Such distortions arise as laser pulses encounter varying refractive indexes within fibre optic cables, influenced by different light intensities.
Practicality and Future Implications
Previous faster speeds had been demonstrated, but these were confined to highly controlled experimental settings. In contrast, this latest research crucially employed cables that were already in active use. These cables, subject to the rigors of a busy urban environment, with frequent traffic and ambient noise, and exhibiting signs of wear such as dirty connectors, represented a genuine, real-world test. The results indicate the feasibility of implementing such advancements on existing infrastructure.
The researchers are optimistic about the prospect of commercial deployment, suggesting it could occur within the next five years. Kerrianne Harrington from the University of Bath highlighted two distinct avenues of research in fibre optics: optimizing bandwidth from already deployed, costly cables, and developing entirely new cable types to overcome existing technological limitations.
“The interesting thing about this work is it’s using what’s already in the ground, which is the expensive thing to change,” Harrington stated. “I do think it’s a very practical approach to the problem. I would say that the work that’s shown in this paper has a more immediate benefit to increasing capacity than new fibres.”