World's Fastest Internet Speed Of 178 tbps Achieved By London Researchers
- Acheived by a team of University college London (UCL)
- World's fastest internet speed can download entire Netflix library less than a second.
- The new record is five times faster than previous world record
The world's fastest data transmission rate has been achieved by a team of University college London (UCL) who reached an internet speed of 178 terabits per second or 178,000 Gbps. They have set a new world record for the fastest internet in the world.
At this speed, it would take less than an hour to download the data that made up the world’s first image of a black hole. The speed is close to the theoretical limit of data transmission set out by American mathematician Claude Shannon in 1949.
Working with two companies, Xtera and KDDI Research, the research team led by Dr Lidia Galdino (UCL Electronic & Electrical Engineering), achieved a data transmission rate of 178 terabits a second (178,000,000 megabits a second) a speed at which it would be possible to download the entire Netflix library in less than a second.
The new record, demonstrated in a UCL lab, is a fifth faster than the previous world record held by a team in Japan.
Dr Lidia Galdino, who led the research team at a lab in Bloomsbury, said such “ultra broadband” will underpin the next generation of the internet, supporting mobile 5G networks used by data-hungry applications such as driverless cars and smart cities infrastructure.
The new record was achieved by transmitting data in a greater range of colours than is typically used in optical fibre in order to increase the bandwidth.
Lead author Dr Galdino said, “While current state-of-the-art cloud data-centre interconnections are capable of transporting up to 35 terabits a second, we are working with new technologies that utilise more efficiently the existing infrastructure, making better use of optical fibre bandwidth and enabling a world record transmission rate of 178 terabits a second.”
Dr Galdino added: “But, independent of the Covid-19 crisis, internet traffic has increased exponentially over the last 10 years and this whole growth in data demand is related to the cost per bit going down. The development of new technologies is crucial to maintaining this trend towards lower costs while meeting future data rate demands that will continue to increase, with as yet unthought-of applications that will transform people’s lives.”