1.8Pbps: Boffins smash data transmission record • The Register

One laser + one optical chip = more than the traffic of the entire internet

European scientists claim to have achieved a data transmission speed of 1.8 petabits per second, all with a single laser and an optical chip.

For those unsure, 1.8Pbit/s is a lot. As in, more than the total volume of global internet traffic sent every second, the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) said in a statement.

The team credits the characteristics of the frequency comb generated on its chip for the breakthrough, even though it wasn’t designed for the purpose.

This is not the first time a frequency comb has been used to help improve the transmission of optical information across a fiber. A group of researchers from the University of California, San Diego, set an especially lengthy record for data transmission in 2015, using the technique to avoid distortion.  …