An international team of researchers from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, have reached breakneck (New data transmission record) data transmission speeds and are the first in the world to transmit more than 1 petabit per second (Pbit/s) to only one laser and one optical chip.
1 petabit is 1 million gigabits. In the experiment, the researchers managed to transmit 1.8 Pbit / s, which is twice the global Internet speed. And only carried by light from the optical source. The light source is a well-designed optical chip, which can use the light from a single infrared laser to create a rainbow of many colors, that is, many frequencies. Therefore, the frequency (color) of one laser can be multiplied by hundreds of times (color) in one burst.
All the colors are fixed at a certain distance from each other – like the teeth of a comb – so it is called repeatedly. Each color (or frequency) can be separated and used to print data. The frequencies can be collected and sent over an optical fiber, transmitting the data. Even big data, as the researchers discovered. One laser can replace thousands.
The experimental demonstration showed that a single chip could easily carry 1.8 Pbit/s, which with modern commercial equipment would require more than 1,000 lasers.
The company Victor Torres, a professor at Chalmers University of Technology, leads a research group that developed and produced the chip. “The peculiarity of this chip is that it produces frequencies with good characteristics for fiber optic communications – it has high optical power and covers a wide bandwidth and spectral region that is excellent for high-speed optical communications,” says the Victor Torres Company.
It is worth noting that a crack has not yet been developed for this application. “In fact, some of the features were achieved by chance, not by design,” explains the company’s Victor Torres. “However, thanks to the efforts of my team, we can now reverse engineer the process and obtain high reproducibility of microcombs for targeted applications in telecommunications.”
Great potential to grow
In addition, the researchers created a computer model to clearly analyze the difficulty of data transmission with a chip similar to the one used in the experiment. The calculations showed great potential to improve the solution.
Professor Leif Katsuo Oxenløwe, Director of the Center of Excellence for Silicon Photonics for Optical Communications (SPOC) at DTU, said:
“Our calculations show that with one chip of the Chalmers University of Technology and one laser, we will be able to transmit up to 100 Pbit / s. The reason is that our solution can be extended, both in terms of generating multiple times and in terms of dividing the frequency into multiple access copies and increasing them and using them as sources that we can data transmission. Although the certificate must be made, we do not lose the quality of our certificate, which we use for efficient data transmission.
This is how you add data to the fire
The compression of data containing data is called modulation. Here, the wave characteristics of light are used as:
- Amplitude (wave height / power)
- Sequence (the “sound” of the wave, where it is possible to stop so that the wave arrives later or later than expected)
- Polarization (direction of wave propagation). By changing these properties, you create a brand. A symbol can be converted to one or zero – so it is used as a data symbol. Reduces internet power
The solutions that the researchers are well prepared for the Internet consumption of the future.
“In other words, our solution allows to replace hundreds of thousands of lasers in the Internet and data centers, all of which consume energy and generate heat. We have the opportunity to help access the Internet leaving a reduced climate footprint,” says Leif Katsuo Oxenløwe.
Although the researchers broke the petabit barrier for one laser source and one chip in their demonstration, there is still development work to be done before solutions can be implemented in our current communication systems, like Leif. According to Katsuo Oxenlowe.
“Around the world, work is being done to integrate a laser source into an optical chip, and we are working on that. The more things we can fit into the chip, the better the whole transmitter will be.” – work well. That is to say. lasers, creative chips, data modulators and any amplifiers. It will be a very efficient transmission of data signals,” said Leif Katsuo Oxenløwe.
