{"id":1517,"date":"2013-03-29T12:31:40","date_gmt":"2013-03-29T16:31:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.nccomputertech.com\/?p=1517"},"modified":"2013-03-29T12:31:40","modified_gmt":"2013-03-29T16:31:40","slug":"fiber-cables-made-of-air-move-data-at-99-7-percent-the-speed-of-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2013\/03\/29\/fiber-cables-made-of-air-move-data-at-99-7-percent-the-speed-of-light\/","title":{"rendered":"Fiber cables made of air move data at 99.7 percent the speed of light"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Researchers say they have created fiber cables that can move data at 99.7 percent of the speed of light, all but eliminating the latency plaguing standard fiber technology. There are still data loss problems to be overcome before the cables could be used over long distances, but the research may be an important step toward incredibly low-latency data transmissions.<br \/>\nAlthough optic fibers transmit information using beams of light, that information doesn&#8217;t actually go at &#8220;light speed.&#8221; The speed of light, about 300,000 km\/s, is the speed light travels in a vacuum. In a medium such as glass, it goes about 30 percent slower, a mere 200,000 km\/s.<br \/>\n&#8220;[L]ight propagates 31% slower in a silica glass fibre than in vacuum, thus compromising latency,&#8221; notes a paper published Sunday in Nature Photonics, titled &#8220;Towards high-capacity fibre-optic communications at the speed of light in vacuum.&#8221;<br \/>\nThe research team from the University of Southampton in England solved this problem by taking the glass out of the glass fiber. This results in a &#8220;hollow-core photonic-bandgap fibre,&#8221; which is made mostly of air yet still allows light to follow the path of the cable when it twists and turns.<br \/>\nThe methods used by the researchers result in data loss of 3.5 dB\/km, an impressively low number considering its incredibly low latency. However, that data loss is still too high for long-range communications. For now, these cables won&#8217;t be used to wire up Internet Service Provider networks or for transatlantic cables.<br \/>\nThe cable uses wide-bandwidth channels to send 37 streams of 40 gigabits per second each, with an aggregate transmission capacity of 1.48Tbps. Even with the current rate of data loss, the researchers say the cable technology is adequate for &#8220;short reach low-latency applications,&#8221; such as future exaflop-speed supercomputers and &#8220;mega data centres.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;For longer transmission distances, additional work is needed to further reduce surface scattering loss and to achieve the sub-0.2 dB km,&#8221; the researchers wrote.<br \/>\nvia <a href=\"http:\/\/arstechnica.com\/information-technology\/2013\/03\/fiber-cables-made-of-air-move-data-at-99-7-percent-the-speed-of-light\/\" target=\"_blank\">Fiber cables made of air move data at 99.7 percent the speed of light | Ars Technica<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Researchers say they have created fiber cables that can move data at 99.7 percent of the speed of light, all 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turns to light beams to speed up supercomputers","author":"NCCT","date":"November 18, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Intel will start using light pulses next year to move data at blistering speeds in supercomputers, yielding potentially massive advances in high-performance computing. It will use optical cables to move data more quickly than conventional copper wiring for linking computing and storage units. That faster data movement should improve system\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hardware&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hardware","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/hardware\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6162,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2014\/08\/07\/danish-researchers-set-the-world-record-for-the-fastest-single-laser-data-transfer\/","url_meta":{"origin":1517,"position":1},"title":"Danish researchers set the world record for the fastest single-laser data transfer","author":"NCCT","date":"August 7, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Researchers in Denmark have now broken the world record for the fastest single-laser data transfer ever recorded. Using a new kind of optical fiber, the research group at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) recorded a transfer rate of 43 terabits per second over a single fiber with one laser\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Networking&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Networking","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/networking\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6677,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2014\/10\/20\/planning-the-supercharged-future-of-ethernet-four-new-speeds-are-in-the-works\/","url_meta":{"origin":1517,"position":2},"title":"Planning the supercharged future of Ethernet: Four new speeds are in the works","author":"NCCT","date":"October 20, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Ethernet\u2019s future is now about much more than the next top speed: The engineers charting a path for the ubiquitous networking protocol are looking at several new versions to serve a variety of applications. At a meeting last Thursday of the Ethernet Alliance, an industry group that promotes IEEE Ethernet\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Networking&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Networking","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/networking\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5571,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2014\/05\/16\/netflixs-many-pronged-plan-to-eliminate-video-playback-problems\/","url_meta":{"origin":1517,"position":3},"title":"Netflix\u2019s many-pronged plan to eliminate video playback problems","author":"NCCT","date":"May 16, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"NEW YORK CITY\u2014For all of Netflix\u2019s complaints about Internet service providers harming video performance, one of the company\u2019s top technology experts is confident that the streaming company can solve most of its customers\u2019 problems. David Fullagar, Netflix\u2019s director of content delivery architecture, spoke about the company\u2019s plans Monday at the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Networking&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Networking","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/networking\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/netflix-hardware-640x231.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/netflix-hardware-640x231.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/netflix-hardware-640x231.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7212,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2014\/12\/24\/diversified-growth-gives-semiconductor-industry-its-best-year-since-2010\/","url_meta":{"origin":1517,"position":4},"title":"Diversified growth gives semiconductor industry its best year since 2010","author":"NCCT","date":"December 24, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The semiconductor industry turned in its best performance since 2010 and is on track to grow nearly 10 percent year-over-year according to a new report from market research firm IHS Technology. The firm expects global revenue to total $353.2 billion, up from just $322.8 billion last year. Looking back over\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7889,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2015\/03\/25\/review-the-2015-macbook-airs-once-trailblazing-design-is-showing-its-age\/","url_meta":{"origin":1517,"position":5},"title":"Review: The 2015 MacBook Air\u2019s once-trailblazing design is showing its age","author":"NCCT","date":"March 25, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The current design of the MacBook Air was a big deal when it was unveiled back in 2010. Its construction and design were a major improvement over previous Airs, it was Apple's first Mac to go with solid-state storage across the lineup, and it came with a price drop that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Apple&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Apple","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/apple\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/DSC00306-980x653.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/DSC00306-980x653.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/DSC00306-980x653.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/DSC00306-980x653.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1517\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}