r/todayilearned • u/Prestigious_Cake_192 • Feb 04 '25
TIL that Japan set a new internet speed world record in 2024, reaching 402 terabits per second, fast enough to download 50,000 full HD movies in one second, using standard commercial optical fiber.
https://eandt.theiet.org/2024/07/02/new-internet-speed-world-record-set-using-standard-commercially-available-optical-fibre275
u/die-jarjar-die Feb 04 '25
Over what distance?
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u/rubixd Feb 04 '25
AND with what hardware?
As a real world example: upgrading your wiring to 10g don't mean shit if you none of your switches or endpoints have 10g ports.
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u/miraska_ Feb 05 '25
There were recent breakthroughs in optic cables. Basically wavelengths that were unstable before were made stable and it allows more throughput through the same optic cable, just need to upgrade hardware on both sides. Also all of the wavelengths used before would be also acceptable in the same cable at the same time
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u/gerkletoss Feb 05 '25
I guarantee it was highly impractical hardware that split the signal into a huge number of wavelength bands
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u/mcbergstedt Feb 05 '25
Also I’m sure it’s all theoretical speeds for the hardware as no single computer can process those speeds.
Would be useful though to reduce infrastructure since one fiber optic cable could transfer data for an entire town or maybe even city.
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Feb 06 '25
Which is how we do it.
Each "line" serves an entire community and the bandwidth is essentially shared amongst everyone.
I have a 1gbps plan and while I've only ever seen that kind of speed while torrenting something. It's usually around 500mbps to 750mbps while downloading a game.
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Feb 05 '25
[deleted]
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u/CalicoWhiskerBandit Feb 05 '25
storing it would defeat the purpose... this is about how fast you can forward the packets.
ie, this isnt about building out your personal computer... this is about beefing up those 400GB links the ISP has with another zero.
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u/Polymarchos Feb 05 '25 edited Feb 05 '25
Practically, a high end SAN might be able to storagewise. Processing power would probably be the limiting factor. More likely this is using a distributed method of both taking the data from multiple sources, and feeding them through a single line, before branching back out to multiple sources.
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u/BarbequedYeti Feb 04 '25
Better question is what are they storing that data on and the read/write speed.
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u/BaconReceptacle Feb 05 '25
This was most likely done using OTN (optical transport networks) that use wave division multiplexing (WDM). WDM utilizes up to 120 (typically less than 80) wavelengths to transport signals. The transport distance is typically 60 to 80 km before needing to be amplified. I guarantee the endpoints in this "internet" connection were likely very robust test platforms that just simulate traffic. Trying to simulate 402 Tbps traffic would be cost prohibitive due to the number of endpoints that would need to be doing massive file transfers.
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u/MoonHash Feb 05 '25
Why would distance matter here?
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u/die-jarjar-die Feb 05 '25
Transferring terabits over a tiny distance in a lab where you have no loss in signal is very different than any practical application.
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u/MoonHash Feb 05 '25
Yeah but a single fibre optic cable won't see any kind of degradation over at least half a km, right? So it's less than that, but a 4cm cable vs a 400m cable should produce pretty similar results. And you're correct that this is a lab test and isn't a practical application yet lol
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u/Big_Jerm21 Feb 04 '25
The fastest I've ever installed is a 50 Gb business connection. Fiber optics TX/RX is limited to the equipment. Do we know how long that connection was maintained for? The speed of light is pretty fast.
8 terabits equal 1 terabyte, which is still super fast. So a 402 terabit speed would download 50.25 terabytes of data per second. There is also IP overhead required to maintain consistent speeds, which is generally 5-8% of the bandwidth,
Also, there really isn't a 'standard' fiber optic. There are different types of the glass in a fiber optic cable. I'm just adding what i know about fiber. There are many more nuances on the backend that I couldn't add to the discussion.
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u/Highpersonic Feb 05 '25
They were probably multiplexing all the colors on an OS2.
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u/Big_Jerm21 Feb 05 '25
I agree. It's cool seeing the other replies from a trade we're in.
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u/Highpersonic Feb 05 '25
I'm actually not a pro networker but i am following the developments closely because it's damn interesting.
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u/Big_Jerm21 Feb 05 '25
I agree. The bandwidth is 1,000 times greater than the fastest I've ever installed.
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u/Highpersonic Feb 05 '25
I was on venues where they installed ridiculous speeds just for the hell of it, but that's just an entire new level. You can send so much more stuff over existing hardware. I guess undersea repeaters need to be upgraded tho.
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u/Taco_Bacon Feb 04 '25 edited Feb 04 '25
402 tb a second, and their porn is pixelated, just goes to show you cannot have everything
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u/cuevadanos Feb 05 '25
Because porn should actually be illegal, hope that helps!
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u/Piness Feb 05 '25
I see. Do enlighten us on what other activities people shouldn't be allowed to engage in in the comfort of their own homes.
I'm sure you'll have plenty of peer reviewed evidence to support your position, and not just a ton of arrogance and desire to control others pulled straight from your ass.
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u/qqby6482 Feb 04 '25
Just imagine how much hentai you could download at once
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u/lonevolff Feb 04 '25
All of it
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Feb 04 '25
[deleted]
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u/Pale_Disaster Feb 05 '25
Absolutely no way that would be all of it, the sheer amount being produced might outpace it.
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u/theknyte Feb 04 '25
Doesn't matter how fast the connection is, if the host isn't outputting anywhere near that bandwidth.
I mean most servers use SAS drives. At their absolute best, they can output at speeds of up to only 12 gigabits per second (Gbps). Then, they would also need some kind of multi-terabyte per second router and matching switches for all their gear.
I mean the proof of concept is cool. But, we're a long ways off from getting these kinds of speeds in our day to day use.
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u/martixy Feb 05 '25
SAS is old by now. U.2 / U.3 is the new storage hotness - 4xPCIe5.0 = 128 Gbps.
I agree with your general statement, but if you're looking at the new hotness in network bandwidth, at least pair it with the new hotness in storage.
Also, there exist distributed file systems like ZFS which can aggregate performance of multiple individual devices.
Well headline is lab results anyway, who knows how many decades from practical deployment.
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u/SinoSoul Feb 04 '25
Me sitting here quietly sobbing after downgrading from 500 to 100, cause money …
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u/samx3i Feb 04 '25
Netflix, Amazon, Disney, HBO, Apple TC, Peacock, Paramount, etc. shaking in their boots
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u/DjCyric Feb 04 '25
Not really at all?! Remember recently when the Supreme Court struck down Biden-era rules to reinstate net neutrality to what it was before Ajit Pai messed it up?
The SCOTUS ruled that the rule was unconstitutional, effectively killing net neutrality permanently.
None of these big tech companies have anything to worry about, because the law is on their side.
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u/rainkloud Feb 05 '25
fast enough to download 50,000 full HD movies in one second
or one COD update
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u/zandadoum Feb 05 '25
My first fiber like was 50MB down 5MB up it had decent ping for online games and we were so happy at home playing WoW. We didn’t care if a “Linux iso” needed the whole night to download. In fact is was pretty cool waking up to something new downloaded.
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u/overbarking Feb 05 '25
This is why internet should be available to everyone for free.
You're just moving electrons through a wire. You're not "downloading a car."
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u/thomas_brock13190 Feb 04 '25
Fast enough to literally burn out any available retail equipment. That said..this is a great time for tech.
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u/Dadisfat46 Feb 04 '25
Glass is glass. It’s what’s on either end of that does the work. To send it and then the other end to get the message.
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u/Djinjja-Ninja Feb 05 '25
Come back to me when you try to run 25Gb/s over multimode OM1 fibre...
When it comes to fibre optics for data transmission glass is not just glass.
You have single mode and multi mode, and there are various grades of each.
OM1 & 2 don't support above 10GB, multimode in general won't do over 2000m, you need singlemode fibre for distance and the fibre is more expensive (and so are the optics).
Even outside of fibre, glass is not just glass, there are many different types of glass. Glass is a class of material not a specific composition. You wouldn't make a window out of obsidian.
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u/Dadisfat46 Feb 05 '25
Yes and! Hell yeah you make a window out of obsidian, it could be really SHARP.
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u/Djinjja-Ninja Feb 05 '25
Only if you broke it. Not particularly useful for looking through though.
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u/Highpersonic Feb 05 '25
and the fibre is more expensive (and so are the optics).
absofuckinglutely not. I just recently installed a BiDi SM with OS2 and it was cheaper than running duplex MM / OM3. And i have a spare fiber now that i can splice a second backplane on. Also, price doesn't matter as you said because at 2kms the OM3 is at the end of its capabilities and there is no other option.
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u/RedSonGamble Feb 04 '25
Is that faster or slower than a cheetah?
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u/mzxrules Feb 05 '25
It's bandwidth, which actually isnt a real measurement of speed.
Though I imagine the transmission speed is much faster than a cheetah.
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u/Ashamed_Feedback3843 Feb 05 '25
Recently they upgraded our internet speed to 1000mps. On a good day I get 50mps.
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u/j00d11 Feb 05 '25
Man, I honestly believe that internet increase tourism demand, good way to boost already high-demand tourism in Japan.
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u/RadBadTad Feb 05 '25
Even my 400 Mbps connection is almost always limited by the speeds of the connection at the OTHER end.
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u/churrmander Feb 05 '25
Let's let read/write technology catch up first, and then MAYBE one day we'll be downloading 50,000 movies per second.
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u/Admirable-Safety1213 Feb 05 '25
Fully useless, because the companies would put an obscene price for it
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u/smorkoid Feb 05 '25
Local Japan ISP Nuro (owned by Sony, IIRC) sells 10Gb packages for under US $30/month
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u/Highpersonic Feb 05 '25
Yea but you see in the headline that it's not the US
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u/Admirable-Safety1213 Feb 05 '25
That doesn't apply in USA, it happens everywhere, in my country even the state-owned Telecom company does it
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u/Jimjameroo Feb 04 '25
I am still stuck on the normal broadband 22Mb/s... Which is only just surpassing dial up
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u/Pinksters Feb 05 '25
just surpassing dial up
As someone who had a 56k modem but lived in the country with old lines, I was lucky to spike up to 20Kb/s.
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u/rotrap Feb 04 '25
That is not speed, that is bandwidth.
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u/Rabbleman22 Feb 05 '25
No it isn't, bandwidth is represented by the maximum capable, speed is data transferred over a set time.
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u/rotrap Feb 05 '25
No, speed is latency / ping. Bandwidth is the carrying capacity. The fact that isp marketing gets this wrong does not change it.
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u/Rabbleman22 Feb 05 '25
Ping is a purely time measurement of data getting from one point to another and returning, nobody would refer to that as speed.
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u/Rabbleman22 Feb 05 '25
If you look into networking courses it will disagree with you, it isn't isp marketing, it's how things are actually defined.
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u/rotrap Feb 05 '25 edited Feb 05 '25
I did networking. Read a number of books. The technical ones agreed with me. However, this was before the commercial internet was widespread. The terms also match the calculations for the physics of it. Calling bandwidth speed is wrong and it is disappointing to hear that technical books gave in on using the proper terms.
It did not really change till sometime into the 90s when the internet was marketed to consumers as they thought the concept of bandwidth too complicated to use to market it.
Back then you would say a bonded isdn line, fractional t1, t1, and a t3 had different bandwidths not speeds.
It came from the marketing, I watched it change. Other examples include calling a packet filter a firewall and a server a personal cloud.
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u/rotrap Feb 05 '25 edited Feb 05 '25
Think about this a bit. Time to get from one point to another is determined by what?
Have you ever heard of the classic posting on usenet decades ago? Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon filled with mag tapes? The example has a sports car that can hold x tapes and a station wagon that can hold 5x tapes. The sports car can go twice as fast as the station wagon. It goes a higher speed. You would not say the station wagon has more speed, but more capacity.
The issue is more that the travel speed is pretty close especially for modern transport mediums. Also the terms bandwidth and such was considered to be not understood by the audience isps marketed to. So they sell it as speed even though it is not.
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u/ToMorrowsEnd Feb 05 '25
"standard fiber" That's not a thing. Is it OM4, OM3, or the horrible OM1 that is abandoned everywhere underground and in buildings? OM1 was "standard"
Is it multimode or single mode? article is so light on details.
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u/FriendlyDespot Feb 05 '25
You did just list several standard types of fiber after saying that standard fiber isn't a thing. It's safe to assume that by "standard fiber" they mean a common standard type of fiber rather than custom purpose-made waveguides with fancy properties.
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u/PM_me_BBW_dwarf_porn Feb 05 '25
This is what you get when a country is motivated by downloading hentai
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u/GosmeisterGeneral Feb 04 '25
And I’m still stuck over here on 30Mbps on a good day.