43Tbps Over a Single Fiber: World’s Fastest Network Would Let You Download a Movie in 0.2 Milliseconds

A Research Group at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), which was the 1st to Break the 1-Terabit Barrier in 2009, has Today Managed to Squeeze 43 Terabits per Second over a Single Optical Fiber with just One Laser Transmitter. In a More User-Friendly Unit, 43Tbps is Equivalent to a Transfer Rate of Around 5.4 Terabytes per Second — or 5,375 Gigabytes to be Exact. Yes, if you Had your Hands on DTU’s New Fiber-Optic Network, you Could Transfer the Entire Contents of your 1TB Hard Drive in a 5th of a Second — or, to Put it Another Way, a 1GB DVD Rip in 0.2 Milliseconds. The Previous Record over a Single Optical Fiber — 26 Terabits per Second, Set by Karlsruhe Institute of Technology Way Back in 2011 — had Remained Unbroken for a Surprisingly Long Period of Time. DTU Set a Series of Single-Fiber World Records in 2009 and 2011 but, had since been Forced to Sit in Karlsruhe’s Shadow — Until Now. This was Obviously a Pain Point for the DTU Researchers — the Press Release [Danish] Announcing the New World Record actually Calls Out Karlsruhe by Name.

I Guess a Bit of Friendly Competition Never Hurt Anyone though, right ? The Main Thing about this World Record is DTU’s Use of a Single Laser over a Single Fiber. There Have been Plenty of Network Demonstrations of Hundreds or Even Thousands of Terabits (Petabits) per Second with Multiple Lasers over Multiple Fibers — but those Demos are so Far Removed from the Reality of Fiber-Optic Networking that, they’re Not Really Worth Discussing. When we Talk about Commercial Fiber-Optic Links, we’re Nearly Always Talking about Single-Laser-Single-Fiber, because that’s What the Entire Internet Backbone is Built upon. In Other Words, the Techniques Used by DTU to Hit 43Tbps actually Have a Chance of Making it, into Real-World Networks in the Next Few Years. You Might Soon be Able to Download a TV Show or Movie in Quite Literally the Blink of an Eye. [Read: Infinite-Capacity Wireless Vortex Beams.] How did the DTU Hit 43Tbps and Steal the World Record Away from Karlsruhe ? Well, Rather Amusingly, they Kind of Cheated. While the Researchers did Only Use a Single Laser, it Used Multi-Core Fiber. This is still a Single Filament of Glass Fiber but, it has Multiple Individual Channels that Can Each Carry their Own Optical Signal. In this Case, DTU Used Multi-Core Optical Fibers with 7 Cores, Produced by Japanese Telecom Giant, NTT.


Back in 2011 When Karlsruhe Set its 26Tbps Record (with a Single-Core Fiber), Multi-Core Fibers were Both Difficult and Expensive to Manufacture — Now, in 2014, it Would Seem the Bugs Have been Ironed Out and NTT is Moving Ahead with Commercial Deployments. The Photo at the Top of the Story, Incidentally, is an Experimental Hollow-Multi-Core Fiber Developed by DARPA. Beyond the DTU’s Use of Multi-Core Fiber, there’s Sadly Very Little Info on How they actually Squeezed 5.4 Terabytes of Data per Second over a Single Fiber. The Usual Method of Boosting Speeds over Fiber is either SDM or WDM (Spatial and Wavelength-Division Multiplexing) — i.e. Using Different Frequencies of Light for Each Signal, or Staggering Each Signal by a Few Microseconds so that, the Signals Don’t Collide. Currently, the Fastest Commercial Single-Laser-Single-Fiber Network Connections Max Out at just 100Gbps (100 Gigabit Ethernet). The IEEE is Currently Investigating the Feasibility of Either a 400Gbps or 1Tbps Ethernet Standard, with Ratification Not Due until 2017 or Later. Obviously DTU’s 43Tbps Won’t Have Much in the Way of Real-World Repercussions for Now — but, it’s a Very Good Sign that, we’re Not Going to Run Out of Internet Bandwidth Anytime Soon. (Customers of Awful ISPs Excepted, of Course.)