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Engineers at the Technical University of Denmark set a new data transmission speed record at 1.84 petabits per second through a photonic chip and a fiber optic cable. The team accomplished such an amazing feat over 4.9 miles. In turn, this speed can provide sufficient bandwidth to download 230 million images.
The newly developed chip uses photonics instead of electronics for data transmission. Implementing special technology in the chip allows it to separate a laser-sourced incoming data stream into 37 lines moving across single threads in a fiber optic cable. Before transmitting, the data in all 37 cores were separated into 223 data channels.
As a result, a frequency comb was generated, allowing data to move through the fiber cable in various colors. Not only does it enable large and quick data transmissions, but stops data stream disruptions. Afterward, the team placed the chip inside a matchbox-sized optical processing device, resulting in a “massively parallel space-and-wavelength multiplexed data transmission” system.
They also tested this device by connecting it to a second device, which provided several data channels. At the other end, they hooked up a 4.8-mile-long fiber cable to another device for data quality and quantity measurements. In addition, the team says integrating this new device to the internet doesn’t need additional transmission media since standard fiber cables can handle the job.
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