Researchers achieve optical data transmission speed of 44.2 terabits per second • Hacker News Board

Re: Researchers achieve optical data transmission speed of 44.2 terabits per second

#31

Post by vaer-k » Sat, May 23, 2020, 4:06 PM UTC

vaer-k wrote: post #24

According to https://hpbn.co/primer-on-latency-and-bandwidth/#bandwidth-i... > As of early 2010, researchers have been able to multiplex over 400 wavelengths with the peak capacity of 171 Gbit/s per channel, which translates to over 70 Tbit/s of total bandwidth for a single fiber link! So why/how is 44 Tbps an improvement?

Ah ok, so according to the article (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-16265-x.pdf),

> To dramatically increase bandwidthcapacity, ultrahigh capacity transmission links employ massivelyparallel wavelength division multiplexing

and

> All of this is driving the need forincreasingly compact, low-cost and energy-efficient solutions

and

> The ability to supply all wavelengths with a single, compact integrated chip,replacing many parallel lasers, will offer the greatest benefits

So it's not really so much news in the sense that existing speeds over fiber have been improved, but instead in the sense that the speed produced by this single chip is a viable compact, low-cost and energy-efficient alternative to many parallel chips

Re: Researchers achieve optical data transmission speed of 44.2 terabits per second

#32

Post by ganzuul » Sat, May 23, 2020, 4:06 PM UTC

I have this funny idea about a waveguide interconnect, where MIMO radios address each other inside the manifold. You could get pretty decent bus width through e.g QAM and with beam steering probably simultaneous data links.

Of course it could be made to look cool as hell, complex microwave plumbing with integrated heatsink replacing a plain old mainboard. :)

Re: Researchers achieve optical data transmission speed of 44.2 terabits per second

#33

Post by stephen_g » Sat, May 23, 2020, 4:07 PM UTC

keenmaster wrote: post #21

Is anyone knowledgable on the implications of the underlying tech once it gets commercialized? Obviously things like game streaming would be improved.

This isn't the kind of thing that we're going to see in home internet for a long time. The newest WiFi standard is only 10Gbps at best, and routers and wired standards aren't affordable over 10Gbps yet either for home use. For internet connections, there are currently already consumer standards that can do 10Gbps symmetric (like NG-PON2) which hopefully we see being deployed more widely soon. Even in 15 years I would be surprised if the high-end of available speeds for home connections are more than 2-5x that (Of course, companies that can pay for dedicated links can already get 100Gbps+ today).

The technology in the article, if commercially practical, would first go in to carrier networks and the larger enterprise market for backhaul transit links in the next few years, then over time filter down to general enterprise networking.

Even if transit providers upgrade, it wouldn't actually be a noticeable change, because they can already do this kind of link, just with a rack with dozens of laser modules that are optically multiplexed together. This does that in a single chip which would reduce cost a lot.

Re: Researchers achieve optical data transmission speed of 44.2 terabits per second

#34

Post by thejynxed » Sat, May 23, 2020, 4:09 PM UTC

throwawaygh wrote: post #23

keenmaster wrote: post #21

Is anyone knowledgable on the implications of the underlying tech once it gets commercialized? Obviously things like game streaming would be improved.

We will be able to make comments complaining about bloated JavaScript libraries at lightning speed.

You aren't kidding, the bloated JavaScript libraries will make my browsing session feel like a blistering 55.6k bps instead of the piddly 11.4k bps they do now.

Re: Researchers achieve optical data transmission speed of 44.2 terabits per second

#35

Post by detaro » Sat, May 23, 2020, 4:09 PM UTC

billme wrote: post #28

Given the cost of laying fiber lines across the ocean and this tech (appears) to double the capacity of an existing line, why would there not be a push to get this into use, what am I missing?

This is a field that's constantly being worked on, not sure why you say there isn't a "push" in it.

This specific thing is not faster than previous results, but more compact.

Long-distance fiber lines also have amplifiers along the way, so you can't just scale them up by changing the endpoints if it doesn't match the capability of the in-line hardware.

Re: Researchers achieve optical data transmission speed of 44.2 terabits per second

#36

Post by thejynxed » Sat, May 23, 2020, 4:11 PM UTC

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #25

keenmaster wrote: post #21

Is anyone knowledgable on the implications of the underlying tech once it gets commercialized? Obviously things like game streaming would be improved.

Aren’t gamers primarily concerned with latency rather than speed ?

Well, if you use things like nVidia Shield for remote streaming you want both.

Re: Researchers achieve optical data transmission speed of 44.2 terabits per second

#37

Post by thejynxed » Sat, May 23, 2020, 4:13 PM UTC

z3t4 wrote: post #14

notaplumber wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, this confuses me. Gigabit is available in several places in North America. I had to check the date on the article.. posted 20 hours ago. Yep. Still confused.

In Sweden we have 10Gbe consumer Internet for $40/month

To be fair, here we have some counties as large as Sweden with fewer people living in them.

Re: Researchers achieve optical data transmission speed of 44.2 terabits per second

#38

Post by dahfizz » Sat, May 23, 2020, 4:19 PM UTC

bobajeff wrote: post #5

I like like the bottle neck in the future will be Harddrive/SSD file read/write speeds. Honestly, I'd love to have my hands on a terabyte drive with 1TBps speeds.

I think latency of a network will always lag behind that of local storage.

Even traveling at the speed of light, going around the circumference of the earth takes over 100ms. Obviously not all network requests go around the globe, but the fact that local storage is physically closer to your computer will always be a sizeable advantage.

Re: Researchers achieve optical data transmission speed of 44.2 terabits per second

#39

Post by dahfizz » Sat, May 23, 2020, 4:21 PM UTC

keenmaster wrote: post #21

Is anyone knowledgable on the implications of the underlying tech once it gets commercialized? Obviously things like game streaming would be improved.

This improves the speed achieved with a single chip, not the actual maximum speed possible with fiber. We already have links that can go faster than this, this invention will likely just make those high speed links cheaper / more compact / easier to manufacture.

Re: Researchers achieve optical data transmission speed of 44.2 terabits per second

#40

Post by billme » Sat, May 23, 2020, 4:23 PM UTC

detaro wrote: post #35

billme wrote: post #28

Given the cost of laying fiber lines across the ocean and this tech (appears) to double the capacity of an existing line, why would there not be a push to get this into use, what am I missing?

This is a field that's constantly being worked on, not sure why you say there isn't a "push" in it. This specific thing is not faster than previous results, but more compact. Long-distance fiber lines also have amplifiers along the way, so you can't just scale them up by changing the endpoints if it doesn't match the capability of the in-line hardware.

Cost of swapping the amplifiers, not just the end-points, makes sense as an issue. Thanks!

As for it being “only more compact” not a capacity increase, for a comparable single coherent optical fiber line, are existing fibers filled to capacity due to the limits of tech, economies, physics, etc. - if physics, then I assume all fibers are at capacity, right?