According to Science Daily, that’s fast enough to download 1,000 high definition movies “in a split second” and is a new world record for a single optical fiber with a single chip source.
Tests of this type are typically limited to laboratory environments but in this instance, the researchers used 76.6km of “dark” optical fiber between Monash University’s Clayton Campus and RMIT’s Melbourne City Campus. They then installed a piece of equipment called a micro-comb that replaces 80 lasers with a single unit capable of mimicking hundreds of high-quality infrared lasers. Each “laser” is able to be used as an individual communications channel, the publication notes.
