Bell Labs Break Record With 31Tbps Via a Single 7200km Optical Fibre 125
Mark.JUK writes "Alcatel-Lucent's research and development division, Bell Labs, has successfully broken yet another record after it used 155 lasers (each operating at different frequencies and carrying 200Gbps of data over a 50GHz frequency grid) and an enhanced version of Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) to send information at a staggering speed of 31 Terabits per second over a single 7200km long optical fibre cable. Previous experiments have been faster but only over shorter distances or by using a different type of fibre optic cable entirely."
Re:Not going to happen. (Score:5, Informative)
Do you think all the big-boys are going to tear up their existing long haul fiber and undersea trunks and replace it with something new? It'll never happen. These stories pop up on /. with disturbing periodicity and I've become immune to them.
What part of the story said they needed to tear up the existing fiber, or even lay new fiber? Sure, they would need to add new gear at the terminals, but that's cheap in comparison to laying cable.
And even if they did have to lay new cable, for this kind of bandwidth I imagine they'd have already begun planning it. The more you carry, the more money arrives.
Re:Not going to happen. (Score:4, Informative)
Wrong, this still requires amplifiers every 100km, just like today.
Re:Microsoft already did this (Score:4, Informative)
I can get 20,000Tbps over a 500 mile long cable right now if all I send are 1's or only 0's.
Re:No repeaters (Score:4, Informative)
No its not. This cable uses amplifiers, and the article mentions a previous 10,000km cable that didn't require repeaters but only has a 4Tbps data rate.