Researchers break internet speed record

break internet speed limit

Australian researchers have set a new record in internet speed. The data transfer rate was 44.2 terabits per second. The whole thing was achieved with fiber optics.

If what researchers from three Australian universities have recently done can be transferred to the general Internet infrastructure, this would be a real quantum leap. According to an article published in the journal Nature Communications, the research team from Australia has succeeded in setting a new record in Internet speed. According to this, a data transmission rate of 44.2 terabits per second was set up.

Internet speed: 44.2 terabits per second

For comparison: according to a comparison of Websitetooltester.com on the basis of worldwide data from Cable.co.uk, Germany has an average Internet speed of almost 25 megabits per second (as of 2019). The 44.2 terabits per second in the researchers' experiment would therefore be almost two million times faster.

Best of all, the technology developed by the researchers could be implemented in existing Internet infrastructure. As the Futurezone reports, the speed was achieved in a conventional fiber optic cable of a network operator over a distance of at least 75 kilometres. All that was needed was an additional chip. Accordingly, the lead author of the study, Bill Corcoran from Monash University, explained that research has shown that lines already in the ground could continue to be the backbone of communications networks in the future.

Ultra-fast data transfer for data centers

Instead of laser signals, however, the researchers used so-called micro combs (micro-combs) for the transmission of information, the soliton crystals, as was the case with conventional fiber optic cables. Solitonas are wave mountains that are stable and do not melt so quickly. However, the ultra-fast data transmission made possible by this will be implemented in the near future in data centers rather than on end devices.