Researchers Set Internet Speed Record in Long Distance Data Transmission

Researchers at Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) have set a new world record of 319 Tbps long-haul transmissions over 3,001 kilometres. The team, led by Benjamin J. Puttnam, successfully completed the first S, C and L-bands transmission over long-haul distances via a 4-core optical fibre, in the standard diameter of 0.125 mm. They said that the adoption of both erbium and thulium doped-fibre amplifiers and distributed Raman amplification made it possible for them. 

The teams said that they constructed a transmission system with the capability to make full use of wavelength division multiplexing technology. They combined different amplifier technologies and achieved transmission demonstration with a data rate of 319 Tbps. And with that, they also got their name registered in history books for producing 957 petabits per second x km, a world record for optical fibres with standard outer diameter.

“NICT and research groups around the world have begun to explore S-band transmission, leading to several new records for transmission capacity in optical fibres, but transmission distance has been limited to only a few tens of kilometres, they said. 

In the abstract of the paper titled, Demonstration of World Record: 319 Tb/s Transmission over 3,001 km with 4-core fibre, researchers said that besides C- and L-bands that are usually used for high-data-rate and lang-haul transmission, the team also utilised the transmission bandwidth of S-band, which had remained underutilised beyond the single-span transmission. 

Researchers added that the 4-core optical fibre, with standard cladding diameter, can be cabled with existing equipment, and hoped it will enable practical high data-rate transmission soon. The new research, they said, will also contribute to the realisation of the backbone communications system, which is necessary for the spread of new communication services Beyond 5G.

Furthermore, researchers said that they will continue to develop wide-band, long-distance transmission systems and explore how they can boost the transmission capacity of low-core-count multi-core fibres and other novel SDM fibres. Not just that, they are also determined to extend the transmission range to trans-oceanic distances.