In the 1960s, MIT’s J.C.R. Licklider promoted the idea of an “Intergalactic Network” of computers, …and it caught on. Shortly after, as the world stood waiting, a computer scientist developed the first practical schematics for the internet – the concept of “packet switching,” which is a method for transmitting electronic data. However, it would still be another couple of decades of technological evolution until a technique was developed that could transmit data between multiple networks. This “network of networks” gave rise to the modern internet and then the World Wide Web – the online world we know of today.
When the web made the internet public in the 1990s, servers had to deliver the service to the people. These early providers (such as AOL) had the speed of a dial-up connection, which was 2,400 bits per second –merely 0.0024 Mbps. Fast forward thirty years, and we have broadband internet connection instead of dial-up (such as DSL and fiber optic cable), which is unbelievably faster. An excellent modern internet connection works at a speed of up to 1,000 Mbps (or 1,000,000,000 bits per second).
But now, researchers from Australia (Monash, Swinburne, and RMIT universities) have blasted those speeds out of the water by achieving a world record internet speed of 44.2 terabits per second (or 44,200,000 Mbps / or 44,200,000,000,000 bits per second). That’s fast enough to download 1,000 HD movies in a second! The country’s average download speed is 43.4 Mbps, meaning the breakthrough speed achieved in this study is a million times faster.
The team used a “micro-comb” optical chip to transfer data in a “real-world” setting – across existing communications infrastructure in Melbourne. The micro-comb contains a bundle of infrared lasers that deliver data at faster speeds by splitting optical signals into multiple parts. This single piece of equipment is equal to 80 separate lasers. Yet, it’s still lighter and smaller than existing telecommunications hardware.
Co-lead author of the study, Dr. Bill Corcoran from Monash University, said:
There’s a bit of a global race on at the moment to get this technology to a commercial-stage, as the micro-comb at its heart is useful in a really broad range of existing technologies. I’d guess that we could see devices like ours available to research labs in two to three years and initial commercial use in about five years.
The most exciting aspect of this study is that it proves the technology can be implemented into existing infrastructure to enhance existing networks. The equipment can upgrade connections gradually to meet increasing demands rather than having to create something new from scratch.
Dr. Corcoran said:
We’ve developed something that is scalable to meet future needs. And it’s not just Netflix we’re talking about here – it’s the broader scale of what we use our communication networks for. This data can be used for self-driving cars and future transportation and it can help the medicine, education, finance, and e-commerce industries, as well as enable us to read with our grandchildren from kilometers away.
The world is now seeing what happens if there is an increased strain put onto the internet infrastructure. The coronavirus lockdowns have caused internet usage to rise dramatically, and many streaming providers had to degrade their services to cope with the increase in traffic. For example, Youtube and Netflix have had to reduce their picture quality in Europe to free up bandwidth. The micro-comb device could alleviate the burden, and nobody would have to reduce the quality of their content.
Dr. Corcoran said:
In the UK, daytime data demands have more than doubled, and there have been special efforts to make sure that connections are reliable. What this extra usage gives us is a sneak-peek at capacity issues networks will see in just a few years’ time – especially as we start bringing online data-hungry tech such as 5G, self-driving cars and the ‘internet of things’ more broadly.
So, we’re going to need new compact technologies like our fingernail-sized device to expand the data-carrying capacity of our networks gracefully – to reduce space and power consumption, as well as costs, while increasing overall data rates. Our demonstration also shows that the device we produced is compatible with the optical fiber infrastructure that is already in place.
Another researcher involved with the study, Arnan Mitchell from RMIT, says that in the long-term, they hope to create integrated photonic chips that can be used to enable the same sort of data rate as micro-combs. The chips would be used across existing optical fiber links with minimal cost.
