Record set for data transfer over one channel by researchers

Howard Solomon

 http://www.itworldcanada.com/post/record-set-for-data-transfer-over-one-channel-by-researchers#ixzz3AJ8l0giU 

For those of you who want to put a figurative pedal to the metal in your data centres comes word that researchers at a Denmark university have set a new record for transmitting data over one channel.

The High-Speed Optical Communications group at the Technical University’s photonics engineering department managed to push data at 43 terabits per second, Computerworld U.S. reports. That beats the old record, which belonged to the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, by a margin of 11Tbps.

Most core networks use DWDM (dense wavelength division multiplexing) to boost capacity by sending multiple channels of data at the same time, each transmitted by a different laser.

Technical University wanted to show that huge amounts of data can be transferred over a single fiber using just one channel or laser, the report says. Using one channel consumes much less energy, a factor vendors will have to take into consideration when they develop next generation networks, according to the research group.

Their test also took advantage of a new type of fiber optic developed by Japanese operator NTT and made up of seven glass threads or cores instead of the single one used in standard fibers.

Earlier this year phys.org reported that IBM researchers had set a new record for data transmission over a multimode optical fiber, hitting 64 gigabits per second (Gb/s) over a cable 57 meters long using a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL). That rate that was about 14 percent faster than the previous record and about 2.5 times faster than the capabilities of today’s typical commercial technology, the report said.