INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Cabling

This beats their previous record , announced in March 2024 , of 301 terabits or 301,000,000 megabits per second using a single , standard optical fibre .

If compared to the internet connection speed recommendations of Netflix , of 3 Mbit / s or higher , for watching a HD movie , this speed is over 100 million times faster .

The speed was achieved by using a wider spectrum , using six bands rather than the previous four , which increased capacity for data sharing . Normally just one or two bands are used .

The international research team included Professor Wladek Forysiak and Dr Ian Philips who are members of the University ’ s Aston Institute of Photonic Technologies ( AIPT ). Led by the Photonic Network Laboratory of the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology ( NICT ) which is based in Tokyo , Japan , it also includes Nokia Bell Labs of the USA .

Together they achieved the feat by constructing the first optical transmission system covering six wavelength bands ( O , E , S , C , L and U ) used in fibre optical communication . Aston University contributed specifically by building a set of U-band Raman amplifiers , the longest part of the combined wavelength spectrum , where conventional doped fibre amplifiers are not presently available from commercial sources .

Optical fibres are small tubular strands of glass that pass information using light unlike regular copper cables that can ’ t carry data at such speeds .

As well as increasing capacity by approximately a third , the technique uses so-called ‘ standard fibre ’ that is already deployed in huge quantities worldwide , so there would be no need to install new specialist cables .

As demand for data from business and individuals increases , this new discovery could help keep broadband prices stable despite an improvement in capacity and speed .

Aston University ’ s Dr Philips said : “ This finding could help increase capacity on a single fibre so the world would have a higher performing system .

“ The newly developed technology is expected to make a significant contribution to expand the communication capacity of the optical communication infrastructure as future data services rapidly increase demand .”

Professor Forysiak added : “ This is a ‘ hero experiment ’ made possible by a multinational team effort and very recent technical advances in telecommunications research laboratories from across the world .”

The results of the experiment were accepted as a post-deadline paper at the 47th International Conference on Optical Fiber Communications ( OFC 2024 ) in the USA on March 28 .

To help support some of its work in this area Aston University has received funding from EPSRC ( UKRI ), the Royal Society ( RS Exchange grant with NICT ) and the EU ( European Training Network ). p

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