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Bell Labs Break Record With 31Tbps Via a Single 7200km Optical Fibre

Posted by timothy on from the faster-than-a-speeding-bullet dept.

Mark.JUK writes "Alcatel-Lucent's research and development division, Bell Labs, has successfully broken yet another record after it used 155 lasers (each operating at different frequencies and carrying 200Gbps of data over a 50GHz frequency grid) and an enhanced version of Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) to send information at a staggering speed of 31 Terabits per second over a single 7200km long optical fibre cable. Previous experiments have been faster but only over shorter distances or by using a different type of fibre optic cable entirely."

6 of 125 comments (clear)

  1. Too bad by MrEricSir · · Score: 5, Funny

    Too bad the bandwidth cap is only 1 GB per month.

    --
    There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
  2. Re:Not going to happen. by plover · · Score: 4, Informative

    Do you think all the big-boys are going to tear up their existing long haul fiber and undersea trunks and replace it with something new? It'll never happen. These stories pop up on /. with disturbing periodicity and I've become immune to them.

    What part of the story said they needed to tear up the existing fiber, or even lay new fiber? Sure, they would need to add new gear at the terminals, but that's cheap in comparison to laying cable.

    And even if they did have to lay new cable, for this kind of bandwidth I imagine they'd have already begun planning it. The more you carry, the more money arrives.

    --
    John
  3. The question is by maroberts · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...whether a special type of cable was used, or whether just fitting different transmitters and receivers at each end of the cable will do the job without the need for putting down an entirely new fibre optic cable?

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    Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
    Karma: Chameleon

  4. How far is 7200 KM? by timeOday · · Score: 4, Insightful

    For comparison, Tokyo to Honolulu is "only" 6200 km (then 3900 from Honolulu to San Francisco). Washington DC to Paris is also 6200 km. So, as far the planet earth is concerned, it's a very realistic maximum distance of interest.

  5. obligatory NSA tie-in by NikeHerc · · Score: 5, Funny

    This was likely at the request of the NSA so they could download all our traffic quicker.

    --
    Circle the wagons and fire inward. Entropy increases without bounds.
  6. For your "Staggering stat of the day" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The switching is so dense and so fast, that the 7200km of cable has *in flight* 146 gigabytes of information at any given time. You can back up your typical "150GB" (143GB actual) OS hard drive and user data, and be done sending it before it starts reaching the other end (if you could buffer it to send that fast, naturally). Is that some crazy shit or what?