A team of international researchers say they’ve set a new world speed record for an industrial standard optical fiber that’s as thick as a human hair and contains a groundbreaking 19 cores.
All of the world’s internet traffic is carried through optical fibers 125 microns thick, connecting continents, data centers, mobile phone towers, satellite ground stations and, of course, our homes and businesses. To provide some context, the width of a thick human hair is 120 microns.
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Researchers from Australia, Japan, Italy and the Netherlands used an optical fiber containing a groundbreaking 19 cores that each carry a signal to transmit data at 1.7 petabits per second (Pbit/s) over a cable measuring 41.6 miles (67 km) long. That’s the equivalent of carrying more than 10 million fast home internet connections running at full capacity.
Read more: New Atlas
