back to article Deutsche Telekom shatters data-transfer speed record

Researchers at Deutsche Telekom's T-Labs have blasted bits at impressive velocity down a single optical fiber, breaking the previous long-distance data-transfer record by more than a factor of two. The bit boffins achieved a 512 gigabits-per-second transmission rate over a single optical fiber from Berlin to Hanover and back, …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Graham Marsden
    Devil

    77 music CDs in one second

    The sound you hear is the RIAA and the BPI expiring from apoplexy!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: 77 music CDs in one second

      It's only an equivalent rate; the experiment got cancelled after the first three CDs when automated "Three Strikes" software disconnected them.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: 77 music CDs in one second

        We don't have three strikes here in Germany and many ISPs roundly ignore requests to associate IP addresses of alleged P2P users with customer details.

  2. Winkypop Silver badge
    Alien

    Imagine if they also used the...

    ...Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator !

  3. Paul Crawford Silver badge

    El Reg units?

    Surely we need this new uber-capacity pr0n hose specified in terms of the standard unit of the kilowrist?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: El Reg units?

      could be based on the size of a standard resolution 30 second preview clip; usually one of four so maybe a semi-demi-spank?

    2. Paul Crawford Silver badge

      Re: El Reg units?

      If you need something doing...based on the figures here:

      http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/12/arizona_boffins_grasp_fat_pipes/

      The demo link was thus able to deliver 'pleasingly sharp' gratification at an impressive 15.6killowrist, and the proposed switch was just a few tissues short of the mythical Megawrist barrier that has eluded desperate boffins so far.

  4. Christian Berger

    Of course...

    Deutsche Telekom is also one of the providers which complains about their customers using the Internet to much.

    I mean think of it. 512 GBits per wavelength per fiber! That's a lot, particularly since Deutsche Telekom is not exactly a company known for having the smartest beans in the pot, and you'd expect that technology to be available in commercial products, soon.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6oxwknHnkg

    (Ignore the text and just look at the acting, here they are determining phone numbers, the rest of the story is how their boss complains about 2 customers getting assigned the same number)

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    so home users

    could use their monthly cap in 20 seconds!

    1. Graeme 7
      Stop

      Re: so home users

      Wow I want the monthly cap your on. My 10GB cap would be gone in 0.2 seconds.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: so home users

      My German ISP has no monthly cap. My router tells me I shifted 116GB last month.

      1. Christian Berger

        Re: so home users

        One should note that the earliest tariffs for DSL in Germany by Deutsche Telekom were based on time. That's why Germany has PPPoE and "dial in", they even continued the same user names from their old "Prestel"-based BTX and the automatic hangup after 24 hours.

      2. big_D Silver badge
        Thumb Up

        Re: so home users

        Same here. No cap on Deutsche Telekom.

        Back when I was a tester for SUSE Linux, I would mampf my way through 3-400GB a month with ease. DT never batted an eyelid.

        We looked at Fibre, here at work, last year. Telekom wanted around 2K€ a month for 10MB symetrical. I hate to think how expensive that link would be!

  6. itzman
    Pirate

    How many pirate copies of Call of Duty V is that?

  7. ElNumbre
    Facepalm

    Can't wait...

    ... until this technology is rolled out to the fibre BT are installed to my house which is scheduled at some point Q2 in the year 2406.

  8. Graysonn

    77 music CD's... I'm surprised the Reg hasn't got its own standardised unit for this.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Optical tunnelling?

    "We are very proud of having attained this tremendous transmission performance *over the Internet* under real-world conditions" (my emphasis)

    So are they tunnelling photons inside IP packets and sending them over the commodity Internet? Or is there just a shortage of clue in the PR department?

  10. ideapete
    Pint

    Wrong big G string

    Typical telco exaggeration as in( Subtracting out the error-correction overhead, the total usable bandwidth was 400Gb/s ) we should all note that Gb/s is the abbreviation GigaBYTES per second and bits is done with a small g. Typical telcos trying to slip in a factor of 8 times more than reality just like with the ATT 4G Lite which is really 3G. We did a spoof of this stuff called MEGA BS in Telcoland = http://www.ideapete.com/megaBS.html

  11. John 62
    Boffin

    obligatory Andrew S Tanenbaum quote

    Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down der autobahn

  12. erwr

    Back when I was a tester for SUSE Linux, I would mampf my way through 3-400GB a month with ease. DT never batted an eyelid.

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like