Scientists achieve fastest-ever internet speed that could download entire Netflix library in 1 second
Scientists achieve fastest-ever internet speed
that could download entire Netflix library in 1 second
By Kelly Taylor Hayes Published
Technology
has changed our lives dramatically over the past decade, forcing consumers to
look at products in a way they never have before.
LONDON - Engineers from University
College London have achieved the fastest-ever internet speed, a fifth faster
than the previous record and one that is double the capacity of any data
transmission system currently deployed in the world.
Researchers said the
connection is so fast that it would be possible to download the entire Netflix
library in less than a second.
The research team, led by Dr.
Lidia Galdino with UCL Electronic & Electrical Engineering, created a data
transmission rate of 178 terabits per second. This was achieved by transmitting
data through a much wider range of colors of light, or wavelengths, than is
typically used in optical fiber, the team said in a
statement.
The achievement is described
in a new paper in IEEE Photonics
Technology Letters. The previous world record was held by a team in Japan.
At this speed, it would take
less than an hour to download the data that made up the world’s first image of
a black hole — which had to be stored on half a ton of hard drives and
transported by plane, according to the team.
The speed is also close to
the theoretical
limit of data transmission set out by American mathematician Claude
Shannon in 1949.
“While current
state-of-the-art cloud data-centre interconnections are capable of transporting
up to 35 terabits a second, we are working with new technologies that utilise
more efficiently the existing infrastructure, making better use of optical
fibre bandwidth and enabling a world record transmission rate of 178 terabits a
second,” Galdino said in the statement.
As the coronavirus pandemic
has forced many people to quarantine at home, work remotely and shop online for
essentials, demand for broadband communication services has skyrocketed.
Some companies have noted as
much as a 60 percent increase in internet traffic compared to before the
outbreak, the research team said.
The engineers said the
technology could be used on already existing infrastructure and that it would
be cost-effective. Users would need to upgrade the amplifiers that are located
on optical fiber routes, according to the team.
Upgrading an amplifier would
cost £16,000 ($21,000 USD), while installing new optical fibers can cost up to
£450,000 ($589,000 USD) per kilometer in some urban areas.
“Independent of the Covid-19
crisis, internet traffic has increased exponentially over the last 10 years and
this whole growth in data demand is related to the cost per bit going down,”
Galdino said. “The development of new technologies is crucial to maintaining
this trend towards lower costs while meeting future data rate demands that will
continue to increase, with as yet unthought-of applications that will transform
people’s lives.”
This story was reported from
Cincinnati.
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