Demo transfers data at 2.56 Terabits per second over a glass fibre link of 160km

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications in Berlin in co-operation with Fujitsu Laboratories have succeeded for the first time world-wide in transferring a data rate of 2.56 Terabits per second over a glass fibre link 160km length. The domo exceeds the existing world record of 1.2 Terabits per second.

This data rate means the transmission of approximately 60 DVDs within one second, or the entire contents of the Encyclopedia Britannica in less than a minute.

The institute said that despite the setbacks in the telecommunications industry in recent years, the traffic in the telecommunication networks is increasing by more than 50 per cent per year.

“A corresponding upgrade of the network capacity and thus a better utilization of the optical fibre links is mandatory in the future. In today’s systems only a fraction of the almost inexhaustible bandwidth of the optical fibre is exploited,” the institute said.

“One way towards a better exploitation is the increase of the data rates that are transported by one optical carrier wavelength in the optical fibre.”

As well as the speed record, the institute boffins also hold two distance records: Data transmission at 1,28TB per second over a glass fibre link with a length of 240km and data transmission of 160GB per second over a glass fibre link with a length of 4000km.