The new optical fiber has a capacity of 125 TB per second

Researchers at Shanghai University recently reported that they were able to increase the speed of data transmission through optical fiber by almost 10,000 times compared to the current standard. These stunning results were achieved by removing the bandwidth limitations.

The news is extremely surprising because optical fiber was considered to be a fairly fast method before and increasing its potential in such volumes is a big step.

What is the secret of the new approach?

Optical fiber is considered to be a very powerful solution, but its potential has not been fully utilized before. There are 2 types of optical fiber cables:

• Single-mode. It is usually used in core networks and has a limited bandwidth. 
• Multimode. This type of fiber has more potential but is difficult to achieve due to signal overload and different interference patterns.

For almost a decade, it has been impossible to achieve higher speeds in multimode optical fiber due to certain objective limitations.

How did scientists solve the problem with the existing limitations?

Experiments have determined that using tiny neural networks that can be embedded in multimode cables can increase the speed. With this approach, separating channel signals and minimizing confusion is possible.

This technology was tested over a distance of 2000 km between Shanghai University and Hainan Island. Scientists were able to prove that the new approach significantly increases the transmission speed without signal loss.

It is important to understand that this option is not about increasing the speed of information transmission, but about increasing the bandwidth. Of course, this technology will affect the download speed, but it will not solve the problem of high pings during games. New technologies will not be able to “leapfrog” over physical limitations in servers. Therefore, some delays due to distance may remain.