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Researchers from Monash, Swinburne and RMIT universities recorded a speed of 44.2 terabits per second(Tbps) - millions of times faster than the average speed in the UK, which is around 64 megabits per second(Mbps).
Such speeds had only been achieved in laboratory settings until now, but the system was able to work on Australia's fibre optic network - used by internet companies to deliver high-speed broadband to customers. The team broke the record using the existing infrastructure thanks to a single device called a micro-comb, which replaces the 80 lasers in current telecommunications hardware. The micro-comb is essentially a laser source, described as "like a rainbow made up of hundreds of high-quality infrared lasers" and produced by a single chip. Each laser, or specific frequency of light which is being beamed, has the capacity to be used as a separate communications channel.
They tested the transmission on 76.6 kilometres of optical fibres between RMIT's Melbourne City Campus and Monash University's Clayton Campus.
Professor David Moss, another leader of the study and a director of the optical sciences centre at Swinburne University, said the work presents the delivery of world-record broadband coming down a single optical fibre. 'Micro-combs offer enormous promise for us to meet the world's insatiable demand for bandwidth.'
With an unprecedented number of people using the internet for remote work, socialising, and streaming during coronavirus lockdowns, the researchers said the trial reflected the normal demand for internet infrastructure in a few years' time."It's really showing us that we need to be able to scale the capacity of our internet connections," Dr Bill Corcoran, co-lead author of the peer-reviewed study said.
The findings have been published in the journal Nature Communications.
Such speeds had only been achieved in laboratory settings until now, but the system was able to work on Australia's fibre optic network - used by internet companies to deliver high-speed broadband to customers. The team broke the record using the existing infrastructure thanks to a single device called a micro-comb, which replaces the 80 lasers in current telecommunications hardware. The micro-comb is essentially a laser source, described as "like a rainbow made up of hundreds of high-quality infrared lasers" and produced by a single chip. Each laser, or specific frequency of light which is being beamed, has the capacity to be used as a separate communications channel.
Professor David Moss, another leader of the study and a director of the optical sciences centre at Swinburne University, said the work presents the delivery of world-record broadband coming down a single optical fibre. 'Micro-combs offer enormous promise for us to meet the world's insatiable demand for bandwidth.'