Tech Olive

Researchers from Australia, Denmark, and China have combined efforts to show the feasibility of terabit-per-second Ethernet over fiber-optic cables. The solution involves a photonic chip that uses laser light for switching signals, and a form of the exotic material type, chalcogenide.

The groups’ combined efforts are documented in  the February issue of Optics Express, which details a demonstration of 640 Gbps networking and the extension of the same approach to terabit-per-second speeds.

The problem isn’t injecting that much high speed data into an optical strand, called multiplexing, but retrieving data at such high rates. Individual lasers, operated by conventional electronics, can inject dozens of 10 Gbps streams, but in terms of retrieving that multiplexed data at these very very high bit rates, beyond 40 Gbps, electronics is not fast enough,” – Ben Eggleton, research director for Australia’s Centre for Ultrahigh Bandwidth Devices for Optical Devices

“It’s years to complete,” Eggleton said, taking these research efforts into a production technology. But these demonstrations “are starting to establish this is a serious proposition.”

This is good news for the IT industry and just shows how much it can progress in such a short time.