Online speed record: 'As if 1 billion people are watching Netflix simultaneously'

Researchers from TU/e have succeeded in breaking a record in sending a digital file. Never before has it arrived at its destination so quickly. The package reached a speed of 22.9 petabits per second. In breaking the record, the people from Eindhoven collaborated with colleagues from Japan and Italy.

PhD student Menno van den Hout did most of the measurements for this work at NICT Japan. He will defend his thesis within the department of Electrical Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology on february 7th. The achieved speed is equivalent to 'about twenty times the global internet traffic per second' and '229 times the maximum capacity of the fiber optic cables' currently in use, according to researcher Chigo Okonkwo .

Okonkwo compares it to 'a billion people watching Netflix streams at the same time. "Or ten billion people having individual HD video calls. That's more video calls than there are people on the planet."

7G Network

The research at TU/e is part of the development of the lightning-fast 7G network. In the Netherlands, 5G internet is available, but at TU/e they are already working with 6G.

According to Okonkwo, such ultra-fast connections help connect more people to the internet. It also enables new applications, such as artificial intelligence. In his words, this technology is 'bandwidth-hungry.'

The old record was about half, namely 10.66 petabits per second. That was achieved in 2020.

A link to the High Capacity Optical Transmission Lab.