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Terabit Ethernet Inches Closer To Reality
An anonymous reader writes "Researchers from Australia, Denmark, and China have combined efforts to show the feasibility of terabit-per-second Ethernet over fiber-optic cables. The solution involves a photonic chip that uses laser light for switching signals, and a form of the exotic material type, chalcogenide, or arsenic trisulfide."
10 Gbps is already normal in server rooms. OC-768 is in the wild at around 40 Gbs. 100 Gbs is definitely around in labs, but I'm not sure if any of it is retail yet.
SATA doesn't have to be very fast, because a single hard drive isn't very fast.
The article talks about using DWDM to basically multiplex multiple 40Gbps wavelengths on the same fiber. Separating out the wavelengths at the other end is the part where the speed limitation seems to be. 40Gbps has been around for awhile, and so has DWDM.
What are we going to do tonight Brain?
The article doesn't say how far they can send the terabit signal, only that the receiver requires 5 cm of fiber to split the signal into lower bandwidth pieces. Presumably the distance between sender and receiver is longer than that.
Well, it would only take .2 seconds if the sending server was serving you up packets that fast. Somehow I doubt you would get maximum throughput speed. I know I never hit the full 100 Mb speed of my network when connecting to a server on the net.
"But this one goes to 11!"