Japanese set data tranmission speed record

A research team from Japan claims to have achieved the world record speed in data transmission using internet protocols.

The team, comprising scientists from Keio University and divisions of Japan's largest telcoms firm NTT, achieved a speed of 43 gigabits per second over an optical network between two campuses of Keio several kilometers apart.

According to a statement from NTT, a movie file on a DVD took under one second to transmit.

In contrast, last month team a comprising members of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) and the California Institute of Technology achieved a speed equivalent to sending a full-length DVD film in seven seconds.

CERN said it sent 1.1 terabytes of data at 5.44 gigabits per second to a lab at the California Institute of Technology, 1 October.

However, unlike the CERN-Caltech effort which involved a distance of over 7,000 km, the 24 October Japanese trial took place between the Fujisawa and Yagami campuses of the privately-run Keio University. The sites are located in Fujisawa and Yokohama cities respectively, which are about 20 km apart.

NTT and NTT East provided the optical network between the two labs. The experiment involved the use of the ITU (International Telecommunications Union) G.709 standard, designed for optical networks, and sent using carrier-suppressed return-to-zero (CS-RZ) compression.

The research will help in "the creation of new broadband applications which take advantage of ultra high-speed Internet networks, as well as within the data center, and help to create a new information infrastructure which will transform Japanese society," said the statement.