Breakthrough in Data Transmission Speeds, 402 Tbps Achieved using Standard Optic Fibre by Japanese Engineers

Japanese engineers achieved a groundbreaking data transmission rate of 402 Tbps using standard optical fibre cables, revolutionizing internet speeds and potential future applications.

Key Points

• Japanese engineers at NICT achieved a record data transmission rate of 402 Tbps using standard optical fibre cables, surpassing the previous record by 25%.
• The experiment utilized 50 km of optical fibres with advanced signal amplifiers, achieving a signal bandwidth of 37.6 THz—over 100,000 times more than WiFi 7.
• Despite the groundbreaking speed, practical applications for home broadband remain distant due to prohibitive costs and technological limitations in consumer devices.
• The achievement highlights advancements in optical fibre technology, crucial for meeting escalating global demands for high-speed data transmission.
• Even the most advanced gaming PCs are currently unable to fully utilize such speeds, limited by factors like Ethernet port capabilities and data writing speeds of RAM and SSDs.

A team of engineers from Japan‘s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) has shattered records with a stunning achievement in data transmission. Using standard optical fibre cables, they achieved a remarkable speed of 402 terabits per second (Tbps), equivalent to 50.25 terabytes per second (TB/s). This accomplishment, documented via Fudzilla, surpasses the previous record by approximately 25%, setting a new benchmark in high-speed data transfer.

Optical fibres, widely employed as the backbone of global internet infrastructure, transmit digital information through modulated infrared, light, and ultraviolet signals. What sets NICT’s achievement apart is their utilization of 50 kilometers of commercially available optical fibres, enhanced by advanced signal amplifiers and gain equalizers. This approach enabled them to achieve a staggering signal bandwidth of 37.6 terahertz (THz), showcasing an unprecedented capacity for data transmission.

While this breakthrough promises exceptional speed enhancements, it remains a distant dream for household broadband users due to the prohibitive costs associated with the current setup. The implications, however, extend beyond immediate consumer applications, with significant implications for industries reliant on vast data transfer capabilities.

Imagine the possibility of downloading multiple 150 GB games in less than a second. Despite the theoretical capability of NICT’s achievement, practical limitations within even the most advanced gaming PCs present formidable bottlenecks. Modern gaming rigs, equipped with high-speed components such as DDR5 RAM and Gen5 SSDs, are still constrained by factors like Ethernet port limitations and processing unit bottlenecks.

For instance, while a gaming motherboard might support a 10 Gbps Ethernet port—impressive by current standards—it pales in comparison to NICT’s 402 Tbps achievement by a staggering 400,000-fold. Even overcoming these network limitations, the speed at which current RAM and SSD technologies can write data remains insufficient to fully harness such colossal bandwidth.

In essence, while NICT’s breakthrough in data transmission speed opens new frontiers for internet capabilities, its practical application in consumer technology remains a distant prospect. Nevertheless, the advancement is a testament to ongoing innovations in optical fibre technology and holds promise for future advancements in global data infrastructure.