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

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.
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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.

even faster.

Actually this is pretty cool.

> 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.

Man that is amazing.

Faster everything is coming our way via the important backbone.

Still, it is kind of cool.

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!

Is it faster than DSL?

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