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University of Illinois Transmits Record 57Gbps Through Fiber Optic Lines (digitaltrends.com) 57

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Digital Trends: Engineers at the University of Illinois have set a new record for fiber-optic data transmission, breaking previous theories that fiber optics have a limit in how much data they can carry. The engineers transmitted 57Gbps of error-free data at room temperature. The group, led by Professor Milton Feng, improved on its previous work in 2014, when it achieved 40Gbps. The keywords here are "error free," which is what makes this research unique from others that claim faster speeds. Fang said, "There is a lot of data out there, but if your data transmission is not fast enough, you cannot use data that's been collected; you cannot use upcoming technologies that use large data streams, like virtual reality. The direction toward fiber-optic communication is going to increase because there's a higher speed data rate, especially over distance." Engadget writes in an update to a similar report: "Reader Tanj notes that this is specifically a record for VCSEL (vertical cavity surface-emitting laser) fiber, not fiber as a whole."
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University of Illinois Transmits Record 57Gbps Through Fiber Optic Lines

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  • by sjbe ( 173966 ) on Sunday March 27, 2016 @05:22PM (#51788977)

    Please convert to standard units Library Of Congress's transmitted per micro-fortnight

    • Going by the book [loc.gov] definition of 10 TB. (conveniently bypassing the question of digital archives) According to Wolfram Alpha a microfortnight is 1.21 [wolframalpha.com] seconds. 57 GB/s is 68.97 GB/mFn. Divide by 10,000 and you have:

      .006897 LoC/GB/mFn
  • by ffkom ( 3519199 ) on Sunday March 27, 2016 @05:22PM (#51788979)
    Excuse me, but even after reading the linked article it eludes me how this is an advancement over existing technology like 100GBase-ZR [juniper.net] EtherNet lines (operating at ~ 120 Gbaud per fiber)?
    • by Anonymous Coward

      Yeah, I thought we were way past the Tbps mark
      http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/192929-255tbps-worlds-fastest-network-could-carry-all-the-internet-traffic-single-fiber

    • by Lumpy ( 12016 )

      Because 100GBase-ZR is useless over a 1000 mile long single mode fiber.

      • by ffkom ( 3519199 )
        What makes you assume the technology described in the linked article is good for more than the 80+ kilometers that 100GBase-RZ achieves?
        • 100GBase-ZR achieves its 120 Gbps line rate by using a complex modulation scheme to encode 3 bits per symbol. 2 bits are transmitted using QPSK and 1 bit is transmitted by choosing either horizontal or vertical polarization.

          The issue with long-haul transmission is that you only have a limited bandwidth available which works with optical amplifiers and avoids the water "dip". It's common to use DWDM techniques to cram multiple individual streams onto a single fiber. This yields just under 100 usable chann
  • that the rooms at either end were at room temperature; just ask renown intellectual Mr Steven Wright.

    • "The superchannel is an advanced dense wave division multiplexing (DWDM) technique, created by combining multiple coherent optical signals into one channel"

  • Error free? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by rfengr ( 910026 ) on Sunday March 27, 2016 @05:57PM (#51789105)
    Lousy article; no details. There is no such thing as error free, so what is the threshold? 1E-9?
    • Re: (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Oh, you twat. If a transmitted unit contains an error it is retransmitted, which reduces the overall throughput. This is digital communications, so there is such a thing as error free.

  • For any reasonable bit error rate, it is entirely possible to build a chip that can do error correction at 57 Gbps.

  • Researchers achieve 57Gbps through fiber optic lines. In local news, I'm still stuck at 15Mbps because Time Warner Cable is a local monopoly and thus has no incentive to upgrade their speeds.

    • by KGIII ( 973947 )

      At home, I pay for 12 and get about 14. Honestly, that's more than adequate for my needs. :/

      I do wish I could actually throttle it back a little and use some of it for upload as upload is only about 1.5 Mb/sec, averaged out. I'd go down to 10 down for 5 up. I'd still be fine. I host all sorts of things off it. I hang stuff off the network like a Christmas tree - though I do have three disparate lines and everything on the network is actually heavily locked down BUT I am, technically, using it right now.

      Righ

  • by manu0601 ( 2221348 ) on Sunday March 27, 2016 @07:55PM (#51789605)

    Summary says:

    breaking previous theories that fiber optics have a limit in how much data they can carry

    In other words, fiber optics would have no limit in how much data they can carry, which it utterly bullshit. How someone could write that?

  • Able to reach your monthly data cap in less than 6 seconds!
  • "At a hundred million megabytes per second, you begin to make out certain blocks in midtown Manhattan, outlines of hundred-year-old industrial parks ringing the old core of Atlanta...” -William Gibson, Neuromancer

If all else fails, lower your standards.

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