(CTN News) – A Japanese research team has set a new world record for internet speed (data transmission).
Using commercially accessible optical fiber, the team achieved a data throughput of 402 terabits per second, almost 1.6 million times faster than the median average broadband bandwidth in the United States.
The research team, led by the Photonic Network Laboratory at Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), built a system that included all transmission bands of standard optical fibers and used various amplification technologies.
NICT indicated that the novel method for accessing previously unused wavelength bands could be used in future telecom networks.
“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,” NICT stated in a brief overview of the project.
Ambition to expand the transmission range.
The average US broadband speed in May 2024 was 248.27 Mbps, with an upload speed of 34.23 Mbps.
In Q4 2023, Cox had the fastest average speed in a test of the top fixed broadband providers in the United States.
Understanding the Japanese Team’s Data Rate of 402 Tb/s
The Japanese team’s data rate, 402 Tb/s, is extremely fast. It can download over 12,500 films in a single second, which is more than three times the number of films now available on Netflix.
NICT researchers hope to someday extend the transmission range to large, trans-oceanic distances, but care should be used about the immediate outcome of this breakthrough. Although conventional fiber optics were used to set the new world record, the achievement was accomplished under ideal lab circumstances.
To reproduce even a small percentage of the breakthrough data transmission in the real world would necessitate additional study and significant expenditures.
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