Optical Cable…and Beyond…

In the seemingly never-ending quest for faster data, optical cable recently passed the petabit (that’s 1000 terabits or 1,000,000 gigabits) per second milestone. At this rate, it is capable of transmitting 5,000 two-hour, high definition videos over a distance of 50 km in one second. The new fiber was a joint development effort in which the number of cores was increased to 12 to handle the increased capacity. Interference, which would normally be a problem due to crosstalk between fibers, is minimized by precise positioning of the lights paths.

In yet another development, engineers have designed a new technology that can transmit data at a rate of 100 terabits through air. It works by bouncing light off a liquid crystal to create a coil. Multiple coils can then nest inside of each other, passing through the same space simultaneously.