Breakthrough: a single chip could transmit the entire U.S. Library of Congress 100 times in one second

By Lotte Krull

This is a breakthrough of epic proportions as a single chip has set a new data transfer record of 1.8 Petabytes per second.

One Petabyte equals 1,000 Terabytes or roughly 500 billion pages of standard printed text. The entire Library of Congress could be transmitted 100 times in a single second.

The implication for global digitization is inconceivable

An international group of researchers from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and the Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, have achieved dizzying data transmission speeds.

They are the first to transmit more than one petabit per second (Pbit/s) using only a single laser and optical chip.

One petabit corresponds to 1 million gigabits.

In the experiment, the researchers successfully transmitted 1.8 Pbit/s, twice the total global Internet traffic.

And they are only carried by the light from one optical source.

The light source is a custom-designed optical chip, which can use the light from a single infrared laser to create a rainbow spectrum of many colors, i.e., many frequencies.

Thus, a single laser’s one frequency (color) can be multiplied into hundreds of frequencies (colors) in a single chip.

All the colors are fixed at a specific frequency distance from each other – just like the teeth on a comb – which is why it is called a frequency comb.

Each color (or frequency) can then be isolated and used to imprint data.

The frequencies can then be reassembled and sent over an optical fiber, thus transmitting data. Even a massive volume of data, as the researchers have discovered.

ONE SINGLE LASER REPLACES THOUSANDS

The experimental demonstration showed that a single chip could easily carry 1.8 Pbit/s, requiring more than 1,000 lasers with modern, state-of-the-art commercial equipment.

Victor Torres Company, professor at the Chalmers University of Technology, is head of the research group that has developed and manufactured the chip.

“What is special about this chip is that it produces a frequency comb with ideal characteristics for fiber-optical communications – it has high optical power and covers a broad bandwidth within the spectral region that is interesting for advanced optical communications,” says Victor Torres Company.

Interestingly enough, the chip was not optimized for this particular application.

“Some of the characteristic parameters were achieved by coincidence and not by design,” says Victor Torres Company.

“However, with efforts in my team, we can now reverse engineer the process and achieve high reproducibility micro combs for target applications in telecommunications.”

SCALING

In addition, the researchers created a computational model to theoretically examine the real potential for data transmission with a single chip identical to the one used in the experiment.

The calculations showed enormous potential for scaling up the solution.

Professor Leif Katsuo Oxenløwe, Head of the Centre of Excellence for Silicon Photonics for Optical Communications (SPOC) at DTU, says:

“Our calculations show that—with the single chip made by the Chalmers University of Technology and a single laser—we will be able to transmit up to 100 Pbit/s.

This is because our solution is scalable—both in terms of creating many frequencies and splitting the frequency comb into many spatial copies and then optically amplifying them and using them as parallel sources with which we can transmit data.

Although the comb copies must be amplified, we do not lose the qualities of the comb, which we utilize for spectrally efficient data transmission.”

REDUCES INTERNET POWER CONSUMPTION

The researchers’ solution bodes well for the future power consumption of the Internet.

“In other words, our solution provides the potential for replacing hundreds of thousands of lasers located at Internet hubs and data centers, all of which guzzle power and generate heat. We have an opportunity to contribute to achieving an Internet that leaves a smaller climate footprint,” says Leif Katsuo Oxenløwe.

Even though the researchers have broken the petabit barrier for a single laser source and a single chip in their demonstration, there is still some development work ahead before the solution can be implemented in our current communication systems, according to Leif Katsuo Oxenløwe.

“All over the world, work is being done to integrate the laser source in the optical chip, and we’re working on that as well.”

“The more components we can integrate into the chip, the more efficient the whole transmitter will be. I.e., laser, comb-creating chip, data modulators, and any amplifier elements. It will be an extremely efficient optical transmitter of data signals,” says Leif Katsuo Oxenløwe.