Scientists have achieved amazing data transfer speeds

Researchers from Chalmers University of Technology and DTU have achieved amazing data transfer speeds and are the first to transmit more than one petabit per second (Pbit/s) using just a single laser and optical chip. One petabyte equals one million gigabits.

In the test, the researchers were able to transmit 1.8 Pbit/s, which is twice the total Internet traffic in the entire world, and this was transmitted by light from a single optical source and no more than the 1,000 optical sources required with today’s commercial equipment.

The light source is a special optical chip that can use the light from a single infrared laser to create a rainbow color spectrum, that is, many frequencies. This means that the laser frequency can be multiplied to hundreds of frequencies in a single chip.

The chip was developed by Chalmers University of Technology.

Huge potential

Researchers from DTU have contributed a computational model that makes it theoretically possible to investigate the possibility of data transmission using a single chip similar to the one in the experiment. The calculations showed huge potential for scaling up the solution.

Professor Leif Katsu Oksinloye, Head of the Silicon Photonics Center for Optical Communications at DTU, accurately confirms that the new method is scalable.

– Our calculations show that using a chip and a laser we will be able to transmit up to 100 Pbit / s. This is because our solution is scalable, both when it comes to creating many frequencies, but also when it comes to dividing the frequency comb into many spatial copies and then optically amplifying them and using them as parallel sources through which we can transmit data.

It can reduce energy consumption on the Internet

The researchers’ solution bodes well for future Internet consumption of energy, DTU wrote in a press release.

In other words, with our solution it is possible to replace hundreds of thousands of lasers located in internet hubs and data centers, all of which consume energy and generate heat. Here we have an opportunity to contribute to the realization of an Internet with a smaller climate footprint, says Leif Katsu Oksinloye.

The experiment in which the researchers transmitted 1.8 bits/sec and the subsequent calculations were published in the journal Nature Photonics.