NTT has successfully demonstrated an optical transmission of 69.1 TB/sec over a single 240km fiber

[Are_grits_groceries]

With the increasing high volume content over the internet, such as multimedia and high definition images, new transmission methods need to be found to handle the increasing data demand. Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp (NTT) has successfully demonstrated an ultra-high capacity optical transmission of 69.1 terabits per second over a single 240 km long optical fiber.

NTT was able to achieve 69.1 Tb/s transmission by applying wavelength division multiplex (WDM) of 432 wavelengths with a capacity of 171 Gb/s. This is the highest optical transmission ever recorded in the transmission field. This technology will prove beneficial in the construction of high-capacity optical backbones for the future.
<snip>
NTT’s objective is to construct an optical backbone network with high-capacity and long-distance transmission based on rates over 100 Gb/s per wavelength and over 10 Tb/s per fiber. This will lead to an optical backbone network that is more cost effective and have greater performance

Schematics at link: http://www.physorg.com/news189430420.html

Whoa! Moving right along.

[LARED]

1. Cool. now we can sit in front of the computer doing nothing

even faster.

Actually this is pretty cool.

[Tesha]

2. Here are the gory details...

> In NTT’s experimental setup, a 171Gb/s signal per wavelength is generated by
> the combination of the 16 QAM format (quadrature amplitude modulation) with
> polarization division multiplexing in the transmitter. The 16 QAM signal is
> generated by combining two QPSK (Quadrature phase-shift keying) signals with
> an amplitude ratio of 2:1 in the QAM modulator. Four hundred and thirty optical
> signals from 1527 to 1620 nm with a wavelength spacing of 25 GHz are multiplexed
> to generate a 69.1 Tb/s signal.

[trumad]

3. 10 Tb/s per fiber...

Man that is amazing.

Faster everything is coming our way via the important backbone.

[TheWatcher]

4. Great! All we need now is new iPads for everyone and we'll have Full Employment by Monday!

Still, it is kind of cool.

[Canuckistanian]

5. Wow

This just blows me away. Complex modulation with 432 wavelengths? And I'd never heard of "polarization division multiplexing" on an optical line before.

Congratulations, NTT! This is a real breakthrough!

[matt819]

6. But. . . but we're the greatest country on earth

Is it faster than DSL?

[FarCenter]

7. It will take 1,727,500,000,000 people typing at 60 words per minute to fill that up

It is also about 172 Blu-ray disks every second (the 50 GByte variety).