Expected to realize communication speed of more than 1000 times, successful transmission of 109 Tbps (for about 2,900 DVDs per second) with one optical fiber

Now, in order to realize high-speed communication, there is a feeling of being an optical fiber with a feeling of being indispensable, but the world's highest record that broke through the numerical value which was thought to be the physical limit that one optical fiber can transmit, the 109 Tbps It seems that we realized the transmission speed.

this isIt can transmit data of about 2,900 DVDs per secondWith the overwhelming speed of being expected, it is also expected to realize communication speeds more than 1000 times faster than in the past in the future.

Establish world record of 109 terabit transmission capacity of one optical fiber | NICT National Institute of Information and Communications Technology

According to the press release of the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, the organization cooperates with OptoQuest and Sumitomo Electric Industries to develop a new optical fiber with 109 Terabits per second that exceeds 69.1 terabits per second which is the world record of the past = 13.625 terabytes per second, for 2899 sheets converted to 4.7 GB of DVD) signal transmission experiment.

Communication using optical fiber currently used is to transmit a signal by providing one passage of 9 micron diameter called "core" in a thin fiber-like optical fiber, the core energy density is the sun It is very high as the surface of the surface, there is a signal output limit that can be injected, the worst optical fiber itself may cause thermal destruction, so it was thought that the limit of 100 Terabit per second is the limit.

Problems when the signal output to the optical fiber is increased. "Nonlinear optical effect" where distortion occurs in the waveform of light after output and "Fiber fuse" where thermal destruction phenomenon occurs with 1.5 W output, etc. have become a bottleneck, and there was a limit in one core.


As the transmission method of data advances such as "time division multiplexing method", "wavelength division multiplexing method", "multilevel modulation method", the transmission capacity which has dramatically improved has also increased from around 2001 due to the limit of the optical fiber itself In a shape that is dull.


However, in this experiment, we realized "multicore fiber" with multiple cores in one optical fiber, which was considered to be technically difficult at the time of optical fiber development, thereby realizing a transmission experiment of 16.8 km at 109 terabits per second success. It is said that all cores confirmed good communication quality.

Comparison of conventional optical fiber and multicore fiber. Technical problems such as "signals leaked from each core interfere with each other" and "core shifts at fiber coupling" have been solved, realizing 7 cores.


Outline of transmission experiment. We have seven existing optical fibers that can transmit at 15.58 Terabits into one 7-core multicore fiber.


In the case of using optical fiber as road and information (optical signal) as automobile, research and development have been carried out to extend the lane in the lateral direction with conventional single core fiber, but with multi-core fiber, the number of cores To be able to increase lanes hierarchically only. By combining this with other optical communication technologies, it is said that transmission capacity of 1000 times or more can be expected at present.


High-speed wireless communication "WiMAX 2" with 330 Mbps maximum is started in 2012Although a dramatic increase in communication speed will be realized in the mobile field as well, the problem also becomes the communication speed of the backbone part of the base station. As it is an epoch-making technology that enables to realize overwhelming communication speed with a single optical fiber, it is a place where practical application at an early stage is desired.

· Additional notes
In September 2012, transmission experiment of 1Pbps (petabit per second) which is 10 times faster than this experiment was successful.

Succeeded in high-speed large-capacity transmission experiment with 1 petabit per second with 12 core optical fiber - GIGAZINE