World record: New type of fiber optic cable achieves data transfer rate of 1 petabit per second over long distances

Data transmission of 1.02 petabits per second over a distance of 1,808 kilometers: this is the new world record recently set by an international research team. The scientists used a newly developed standard 19-core optical fiber, with low loss across multiple wavelength bands.

Although a standard 19-core fibre optic cable was used to reach 1.7 petabits per second in March 2023, this was only over a distance of just over 60 kilometers. The transmission capacity of the new fiber optic line is significantly higher at 1.86 exabits per kilometer per second, breaking the previous world record of 1.71 exabits per kilometer per second from October 2023.

World record for standard diameter fiber optic cable

Researchers coordinated by the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) in Japan used a standard-diameter fiber optic cable with 19 cores coupled together. With the help of an optical amplifier, the transmission range was increased to almost 2,000 kilometers.

The researchers hope that the establishment of such types of fiber optic cable with 19 glass cores will be able to cope with rapidly increasing volumes of data traffic in the future. The research team also aims to further develop the efficiency of optical amplification and find practical applications for the new technology.