Researchers in China have once again pushed the boundaries of fiber optic communication, managing to carry 3.2 petabits of data per second through a single cable. In a short-lived experiment, enormous data packets were transmitted at a record-breaking speed.

So how was this incredible capacity achieved, and where might the technology show up in the future?

Behind the record: a 24-core cable

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At the heart of the experiment is a special fiber optic cable with 24 separate cores. The team sent data through a 10.3-kilometer-long line, routing it across the cable's different cores and three different wavelength bands. This approach made it possible to run thousands of parallel communication channels simultaneously.

The key point is that rather than speeding up a single data stream, the researchers increased the total volume of data passing through the same physical line. They also carried out the transfer in real time using optical modules of their own design.

Why it matters in the age of AI

The rise of artificial intelligence is steadily growing the volume of data that data centers exchange with one another. Training large models requires hundreds of servers to work in coordination, with high-capacity links between them.

Viewed from that angle, the ability of existing fiber optic infrastructure to carry far more data could prove a critical advantage for the data centers of the future.