The
frustration of trying to download a film online, watching the progress
bar move mind-bogglingly slowly, may soon be a thing of the past.
Scientists have created the world’s fastest network that can download a movie faster than you can blink.
Danish researchers achieved the feat by creating a next-generation optical fibre that transfers 43 terabits per second.
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| Scientists have created the world's fastest network that can download a movie faster than you can blink, by using a new type of optical fibre to transfer 43 terabits per second |
The researchers at the Technical
University of Denmark have now reclaimed the record for the fastest
network, having previously lost it to experts at the Karlsruhe Institut
für Technologie in Germany, who created a network able to reach speeds
of 32 terabits per second.
To reclaim
the title for the world’s fastest network, the Danish team used single multi-core
optical fibre, which was developed by Japanese firm Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NNT).
This
type of fibre contains seven cores - glass threads - instead of the
single core used in standard fibres, which makes it possible to transfer
more data. Incredibly, the fibre is the same width as standard fibre.
The
researchers say that the worldwide competition in data speed is
contributing to developing the technology needed to accommodate the
growth of data traffic on the internet.
Such
traffic is estimated to be growing by 40 to 50 per cent every year, and
is set to soar as more people use internet-connected devices in the
home and technology in cars becomes more complex.
Professor Milchberg and his team have found a way to make air behave like an optical fibre, which could guide beams of light over long distances without loss of power, according to the study in the journal Optica.
The air waveguides consist of a ‘wall’ of low-density air surrounding a core of higher density air.
Just like a conventional optical fibre, the wall has a lower refractive index than the core, guiding light along a ‘pipe’.
The physicists broke down the air with a laser to create a spark and used the air waveguide to conduct light from the spark to a detector a three feet (1 metre) away.
The signal was strong enough so that they could analyse the chemical composition of the air that produced the spark.
In fact, the signal was one-and-a-half times stronger than a signal obtained without the waveguide.
While this may not seem a lot, over distances that are 100 times longer - where an unguided signal would be severely weakened - the signal enhancement could be much greater, the scientists explained.
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