Fastest internet speed (44.2 Tbps) ever recorded in Australia
What's the story
As you make do with a standard 4G, home broadband connection, a team of researchers from Australia's Swinburne and other universities is enjoying something way, way better than that.
They have recorded data speeds of 44.2 terabits per second (Tbps), which, to note, is the fastest internet speed ever to be experienced.
Here is all you need to know about it.
Speed
Just how fast 44.2 Tbps would be?
To put things into perspective, 44.2 Tbps is a million times faster than the speed offered by a good Australian government-owned National Broadband Network (NBN) connection.
You can use this speed to download 1,000 HD (720p) movies or more than 50 100GB Ultra HD (4K) Blu-ray discs in under one second.
Now, that is a blazing fast internet!
Benefit #2
Use of existing optical fiber infrastructure
What makes this project more tempting is the fact that this record-breaking speed was logged over 75km of standard optical fiber with a single integrated chip source.
The fiber ran between RMIT's Melbourne campus and Monash University's Clayton campus (other two universities involved) and was similar to NBN's infrastructure, which means it could be used to offer similar speeds to the public one day.
Work
So, how exactly the team got these speeds?
To get to these speeds, the team replaced about 80 lasers found in the fibers of the existing cable with a single 'micro-bomb', a device that transmits data more efficiently.
The device, which was used for the first time in a field trial, worked like a charm and allowed more data to pass than ever, breaking the world-record for bandwidth in no time.
Quote
What study co-lead professor Bill Corcoran said about their work
"What our research demonstrates is the ability for fibers that we already have in the ground, thanks to the NBN project, to be the backbone of communications networks now and in the future. We have developed something that is scalable to meet future needs."
Possibility
Key to running industries, advanced technologies in the future
Corcoran noted that a technology like this would be critical to supporting an "unprecedented number of people using the internet for remote work, socializing, and streaming."
Plus, he emphasized, "This data can be used for self-driving cars and can help the medicine, education, finance, and e-commerce industries - as well as enable us to read with our grandchildren from kilometers away."