Siemens Sets Fibre Optic Speed Record

December 27th, 2006: Siemens is claiming a new record for fibre optic network speeds this week after nailing 107 Gbps in real-world testing.

That’s right, 107-gigabits per second, or around two full DVD movies per second. Conducted by Siemens in cooperation with Micram, Eindhoven Technical University and the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, the test was conducted over a 100 mile (161km) stretch of fibre in the US.

The new technology is effectively 2.5 times faster the previous record holder, and achieves its intense speeds over a single channel purely by electrical means. The company says that the system processes 100% of data electrically and converts it into optical signals and back before and after transmission.

According to Reuters, “Such a system would be particularly interesting for the future 100-gigabit ethernet on which the telecommunication providers are currently working,” Siemens said.

With exponential increases in data transmission occurring, the news will no doubt also be welcomed by business not to mention your everyday net user. Siemens said it expects to have products based on this new technology rolling out within a few years.

Comment on this story