Engineers set a new record for data transmission speed over a standard diameter optical fiber. By sending 55 “mode” signals over single-core optical fiber, the team was able to transmit data at 1.53 petabits per second (Pbps). To really understand how fast this is, one petabit equals one million gigabits. A modern home Internet connection would be lucky to get speeds of one gigabit per second. In fact, all global Internet bandwidth is estimated to reach just under 1 Mbps, which means this fiber can handle all of this with some free space.

Technically, this is not the fastest data transfer rate – that honor goes to a new optical chip with a staggering 1.84 petabits per second clock speed. However, this technology is still highly experimental and far from commercialization. However, this new record is significant because it was achieved using an optical fiber with a standard coating diameter of 0.125 mm. This means that it must be largely compatible with existing infrastructure. Like most modern optical fibers, the new system uses a single glass core to transmit data, but the light is first modulated to form 55 different data streams or modes that transmit different information. At the other end of the fiber, these signals are processed to decode the transmitted data.

This is the first transmission demonstration using 55 modes, allowing engineers to use light more efficiently than the previous record they broke in May of this year. In this study, the team was able to transmit data at 1.02 Mbps using only four modes in the form of four separate glass cores. The transmission bandwidth was then split into 801 wavelength channels in three bands – now the bandwidth is limited to just 184 wavelengths in one band, which means a threefold increase in efficiency. The team says transmission power still needs to be improved by expanding the frequency band. The research was presented at the European Conference on Optical Communications in September.