In comparison, the fastest commercially available Internet is used in Japan today. There, the connection speed can reach 10 Gbps. Even the high-speed computer network of the Energy Sciences Network, which serves the US Department of Energy scientists and their employees around the world, is capable of delivering only 400 Gbps at its peak.

Scientists and engineers from Japan’s KDDI Research, University College London, and Xtera’s submarine communications cable installation service set a new data rate record. Together they have developed new technologies that allow more data to be transferred using the existing fiber-optic infrastructure.

In most cases, the current capabilities of optical fiber allow transmitting a signal with a frequency of up to 4.5 THz, some innovative solutions, which are just starting to be introduced into commercial operation, allow increasing the bandwidth to 9 THz. In turn, the new system allows transmitting signals with a frequency of 16.8 THz.

To set a record for the data transmission rate, specialists have applied various technologies for amplifying the signal power, based on the method of geometric modulation of the signal constellation. It allows minimizing the possibility of signal distortion during its transmission by using patterns of signal combinations that allow the most efficient use of the phase, brightness, polarization properties of light, as well as manipulate each individual wavelength.

Since this technology can use existing fiber-optic infrastructure to operate, it will be much easier and cheaper to integrate it for commercial use than other experimental developments in this area. It is enough just to upgrade the signal amplifiers located at a distance of 40 to 100 km from each other, without changing the fiber optic cables themselves. The researchers explain that the installation of one updated signal amplifier will cost about $ 21 thousand, and the cost of laying one kilometer of fiber-optic cable in an urban environment can be up to $ 593 thousand.