MSGID: 1:317/3 6476cdb1   
   PID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
   TID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
    Fastest industry standard optical fiber    
    1.7 Petabits, equal to more than 10 million home broadband connections.   
   Invented in Japan with Macquarie University support    
      
     Date:   
         May 30, 2023   
     Source:   
         Macquarie University   
     Summary:   
         An optical fiber about the thickness of a human hair can now   
         carry the equivalent of more than 10 million fast home internet   
         connections running at full capacity.   
      
      
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   FULL STORY   
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   An optical fibre about the thickness of a human hair can now carry the   
   equivalent of more than 10 million fast home internet connections running   
   at full capacity.   
      
   A team of Japanese, Australian, Dutch, and Italian researchers has set   
   a new speed record for an industry standard optical fibre, achieving   
   1.7 Petabits over a 67km length of fibre. The fibre, which contains 19   
   cores that can each carry a signal, meets the global standards for fibre   
   size, ensuring that it can be adopted without massive infrastructure   
   change. And it uses less digital processing, greatly reducing the power   
   required per bit transmitted.   
      
   Macquarie University researchers supported the invention by developing   
   a 3D laser-printed glass chip that allows low loss access to the 19   
   streams of light carried by the fibre and ensures compatibility with   
   existing transmission equipment.   
      
   The fibre was developed by the Japanese National Institute of Information   
   and Communications Technology (NICT, Japan) and Sumitomo Electric   
   Industries, Ltd.   
      
   (SEI, Japan) and the work was performed in collaboration with the   
   Eindhoven University of Technology, University of L'Aquila, and Macquarie   
   University.   
      
   All the world's internet traffic is carried through optical fibres   
   which are each 125 microns thick (comparable to the thickness of a   
   human hair). These industry standard fibres link continents, data   
   centres, mobile phone towers, satellite ground stations and our homes   
   and businesses.   
      
   Back in 1988, the first subsea fibre-optic cable across the Atlantic had a   
   capacity of 20 Megabits or 40,000 telephone calls, in two pairs of fibres.   
      
   Known as TAT 8, it came just in time to support the development of the   
   World Wide Web. But it was soon at capacity.   
      
   The latest generation of subsea cables such as the Grace Hopper cable,   
   which went into service in 2022, carries 22 Terabits in each of 16   
   fibre pairs.   
      
   That's a million times more capacity than TAT 8, but it's still not   
   enough to meet the demand for streaming TV, video conferencing and all   
   our other global communication.   
      
   "Decades of optics research around the world has allowed the industry to   
   push more and more data through single fibres," says Dr Simon Gross from   
   Macquarie University's School of Engineering. "They've used different   
   colours, different polarisations, light coherence and many other tricks   
   to manipulate light."  Most current fibres have a single core that carries   
   multiple light signals. But this current technology is practically limited   
   to only a few Terabits per second due to interference between the signals.   
      
   "We could increase capacity by using thicker fibres. But thicker fibres   
   would be less flexible, more fragile, less suitable for long-haul cables,   
   and would require massive reengineering of optical fibre infrastructure,"   
   says Dr Gross.   
      
   "We could just add more fibres. But each fibre adds equipment overhead   
   and cost and we'd need a lot more fibres."  To meet the exponentially   
   growing demand for movement of data, telecommunication companies need   
   technologies that offer greater data flow for reduced cost.   
      
   The new fibre contains 19 cores that can each carry a signal.   
      
   "Here at Macquarie University, we've created a compact glass chip with a   
   wave guide pattern etched into it by a 3D laser printing technology. It   
   allows feeding of signals into the 19 individual cores of the fibre   
   simultaneously with uniform low losses. Other approaches are lossy and   
   limited in the number of cores," says Dr Gross.   
      
   "It's been exciting to work with the Japanese leaders in optical fibre   
   technology. I hope we'll see this technology in subsea cables within five   
   to 10 years."  Another researcher involved in the experiment, Professor   
   Michael Withford from Macquarie University's School of Mathematical and   
   Physical Sciences, believes this breakthrough in optical fibre technology   
   has far-reaching implications.   
      
   "The optical chip builds on decades of research into optics at Macquarie   
   University," says Professor Withford. "The underlying patented technology   
   has many applications including finding planets orbiting distant stars,   
   disease detection, even identifying damage in sewage pipes."   
       * RELATED_TOPICS   
             o Matter_&_Energy   
                   # Optics # Telecommunications # Consumer_Electronics #   
                   Engineering_and_Construction   
             o Computers_&_Math   
                   # Information_Technology # Internet #   
                   Computers_and_Internet # Computer_Science   
       * RELATED_TERMS   
             o Local_area_network o World_Wide_Web o Voice_over_IP o   
             Massively_multiplayer_online_game o Scale_model o Wind_power   
             o Full_motion_video o Instant_messaging   
      
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   Story Source: Materials provided by Macquarie_University. Note: Content   
   may be edited for style and length.   
      
      
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   Journal Reference:   
      1. Georg Rademacher, Menno van den Hout, Ruben S. Lui's, Benjamin J.   
      
         Puttnam, Giammarco Di Sciullo, Tetsuya Hayashi, Ayumi Inoue,   
         Takuji Nagashima, Simon Gross, Andrew Ross-Adams, Michael   
         J. Withford, Jun Sakaguchi, Cristian Antonelli, Chigo Okonkwo,   
         Hideaki Furukawa. Randomly Coupled 19-Core Multi-Core Fiber with   
         Standard Cladding Diameter.   
      
         Proceedings of the 46th Optical Fiber Communication Conference,   
         2023 DOI: 10.1364/OFC.2023.Th4A.4   
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   Link to news story:   
   https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/05/230530125447.htm   
      
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