Researchers in China have achieved a monumental leap in optical communication, setting a new world record for real-time, two-way data transmission speed. A team from the National Key Laboratory of Optical Fiber Technology and Networks at China Information Communications Technology Group (CICT), in collaboration with Pengcheng Lab and Wanhua Fiber Optic Technology Co., Ltd., successfully demonstrated a staggering 3.2 Petabits per second (Pbps) over a multi-core optical fiber. This achievement marks a significant milestone, establishing a new global benchmark for single-fiber, real-time bidirectional data throughput.
Revolutionary Speed and Its Implications
The sheer magnitude of 3.2 Pbps is difficult to comprehend; it’s enough bandwidth to download over 20,000 4K movies in a single second. According to Yang Chao, a senior engineer at the China ICT Group’s optical systems laboratory, this experiment validates the industrial potential of multi-core optical fibers for expanding capacity. This breakthrough paves the way for future advancements, including the development of 6G networks, enhanced connectivity for massive data centers, and the creation of ultra-high-speed backbone networks.
Technological Innovation Driving the Advance
As the demand for data continues to surge, fueled by the rapid growth of artificial intelligence, large language models, and cloud computing, traditional single-core optical fiber systems are approaching their theoretical capacity limits. To overcome these constraints, the research team developed an innovative bidirectional transmission architecture utilizing a 24-core multi-core optical fiber. Spanning 10.3 kilometers, the experiment ingeniously combined multiplexing technologies across three optical bands (S+C+L) with spatial multiplexing. This integration created thousands of parallel transmission channels, dramatically surpassing the capacity of conventional single-core fibers.
The system incorporates commercially available coherent optical modules and employs high-order probabilistic amplitude modulation to ensure stable, real-time bidirectional signal transmission. Furthermore, optimized core arrangement within the fiber effectively suppressed crosstalk between cores and simplified signal processing, contributing to the system’s high performance and practical feasibility.
Comparative Analysis and Future Prospects
“Compared to current G.652 single-core optical fibers operating in the C+L bands, which offer a maximum capacity of approximately 100 Tbps, our system has increased the total single-fiber capacity by 32 times,” explained Yang Chao. “We also successfully tested the transmission of 400G signals in the S-band and 1.2 Tbps signals in the C+L bands using our proprietary optical modules. This allows us to overcome the single-fiber capacity bottleneck, which was previously difficult to surpass solely by expanding the spectral range.”
These groundbreaking findings have been recognized by the international scientific community, with an invited paper detailing the research published in the prestigious journal ‘Journal of Lightwave Technology’.
Source: ithome.com
