Japan Successfully Breaks Internet Speed Record Of 319Tbps

The internet speed record has been successfully broken by Japanese scientists. (photo: Federik Lipfert / Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Apart from the United States (US) and China, Japan also deserves thumbs up for its technological breakthroughs. The reason is, recently researchers at the Japan National Institute of Information and Communication Technology (NICT) have broken a record by producing internet speeds reaching 319 terabits per second (second).

Compiled from Vice International, Sunday 18 July, this figure is double the previous record of 178 Tb/s set last year by engineers in Japan and the UK. Speed tests are carried out in a laboratory using advanced fiber-optic technology.

Many fiber optic cables contain a single core and many use a coating material to protect the data inside. The NICT system uses an experimental strand of fiber optic cable with four cores housed in the cable, which is approximately the size of a standard fiber optic line.

“4-core (multi-core) fiber with standard coating material diameters is attractive for early adoption of fiber (space division multiplex) in high-throughput long-distance links, as it is compatible with conventional cable infrastructure and is expected to have comparable reliability to single-mode fiber", said NICT.

The researchers also fired a 552-channel comb laser at various wavelengths with the help of an amplifier made of rare piles of earth. The team also used circular fiber to transfer data over a simulated 1.864 miles of distance without any loss of signal quality or speed.

These trials are quite costly, and engineers envision they will be used to rapidly push data across great distances.

Chances are, it will take some time before this test is successful. The researchers believe that the main innovation here is the new 4-core fiber optic cable that is developed. NICT believes it can be easily implemented in existing systems to provide a major internet speed boost.

"4-core optical fiber can be interlaced with existing equipment, and it is hoped that the fiber can enable high-speed practical data transmission in the near future, contributing to the realization of the communication backbone system, which is necessary for the deployment of new communication services beyond 5G", said NICT. .