319 Tbps over fiber: set new record for data transfer rate

Using the new system, Japanese engineers have established data transmission at a speed of 319 terabits per second over a fiber optic line with a length of more than 3,000 km.

The new result is almost twice as highthe previous record was 178 Tbps, set last year. For comparison, the maximum speed of home Internet in some parts of Japan, the USA and New Zealand is 10 Gbit/s (36.5 thousand times slower), even NASA's advanced channels carry no more than  400 Gbit/s.

Researchers from the National Institute of Information and Communicationtechnology has made a breakthrough bymodernization of the existing fiber-optic infrastructure and the use of new signal transmission technology. They used cables with four cores instead of the standard single ones, and also split each signal into several wavelengths transmitted simultaneously.

The system starts with a comb laser,generating 552 channels at different wavelengths. This light is then converted through dual polarization modulation, which delays some of the pulses to create different signal sequences. Each of them is then fed into one of the four strands of the optical fiber.

Approximately every 70 km of line the signal passes throughtwo types of amplifiers, one of which is doped with erbium, and the other – thulium, to achieve the overall effect of Raman enhancement. The signal sequences are then sent to a new segment of optical fiber.

Repeating this process many times allowed the engineering team to transmit data over a distance of 3,001 km.

Since the thickness of the four-core fiber with a protective sheath is the same as that of the traditional one, the new technology can be easily implemented into the existing infrastructure.

Recall that at the beginning of the year, scientists created a plastic cable that can transfer data at a speed of 105 GB / s.

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