London: Scientists from the University College London (UCL) have tested the highest data transmission rate of the internet that claims to download the entire Netflix library in less than a second.
The internet recorded a speed of 178 terabits a second, five times the previous record.
This was reportedly achieved by transmitting data through a wider wavelength or wider range of colours of light than usually used in optical fibre. Different amplifier technologies along with new Geometric Shaping (GS) constellations helped manipulate the properties of each individual wavelength.
GS constellations are reportedly patterns of signal combinations that use the best of the phase, brightness and polarisation properties of the light.
One big advantage of this technology is that it can be used in the existing infrastructure cost-effectively. It would require just upgrading amplifiers located at 40-100km intervals on the optical fibre.
“While current state-of-the-art cloud data-centre interconnections are capable of transporting up to 35 terabits a second, we are working with new technologies that utilise more efficiently the existing infrastructure,” said lead author Lidia Galdino, a Lecturer at UCL and a Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellow.
