Academics from Aston Institute of Photonic Research have set a new record by transmitting data at 402 terabits per second, surpassing their previous record of 301 terabits per second. They achieved this milestone by building the first optical transmission system that operates across six wavelength bands.

Aston University researchers and their international team have set a new data transmission record of 402 terabits per second using standard optical fiber, potentially stabilizing broadband costs as demand surges.

Researchers at Aston University, collaborating with a team, have achieved a new record by transmitting data at a rate of 402 terabits per second through commercially available optical fiber. This accomplishment surpasses their prior record set in March 2024, where they managed to send data at 301 terabits per second, equivalent to 301,000,000 megabits per second, using a single standard optical fiber.

According to the researchers, “If compared to the internet connection speed recommendations of Netflix, of 3 Mbit/s or higher, for watching an HD movie, this speed is over 100 million times faster.”

The speed was achieved by using a wider spectrum, using six bands rather than the previous four, which increased the capacity for data sharing. Normally just one or two bands are used. The international research team included Professor Wladek Forysiak and Dr Ian Philips who are members of the University’s Aston Institute of Photonic Technologies (AIPT). Led by the Photonic Network Laboratory of the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) which is based in Tokyo, Japan the team also includes Nokia Bell labs in the USA.

Together they achieved the feat by constructing the first optical transmission system covering six wavelength bands (O, E, S, C, L, and U) used in fiber optical communication. Aston University contributed specifically by building a set of U-band Raman amplifiers, the longest part of the combined wavelength spectrum, where conventional doped fiber amplifiers are not presently available from commercial sources.

Dr. Ian Philips. Credit: Dr. Ian Philips

Advantages of Using Standard Fiber

Optical fibers are small tubular strands of glass that pass information using light, unlike regular copper cables that can’t carry data at such speeds. As well as increasing capacity by approximately a third, the technique uses so-called “standard fiber” that is already deployed in huge quantities worldwide, so there would be no need to install new specialist cables.

As demand for data from businesses and individuals increases this new discovery could help keep broadband prices stable despite an improvement in capacity and speed.

Aston University’s Dr Philips said: “This finding could help increase capacity on a single fiber so the world would have a higher performing system. The newly developed technology is expected to make a significant contribution to expand the communication capacity of the optical communication infrastructure as future data services rapidly increase demand.”

His colleague Professor Wladek Forysiak added: ‘This is a ‘hero experiment’ made possible by a multi-national team effort and very recent technical advances in telecommunications research laboratories from across the world’.”

The results of the experiment were accepted as a post-deadline paper at the 47th International Conference on Optical Fiber Communications (OFC 2024) in the USA on 28 March.

To help support some of its work in this area Aston University has received funding from EPSRC (UKRI), the Royal Society (RS Exchange grant with NICT), and the EU (European Training Network).