Three researchers from the University of Illinois managed to transmit data from visual room-temperature, error-free fiber at 57 Gbps.
The team, of graduate students Curtis Wang and Michael Liu, with professor Milton Feng, managed to break the previous record of 40Gbps, held again by Mr. Milton Feng with another group of students from 2014.
The researchers presented the oxide-VCSEL (Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser) technology at the Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition held last week in Anaheim, California
The team explained that with this breakthrough, with the transmission of high quality data, such as 4K and VR (Virtual Reality) streams will now be an economically viable solution for ISPs.
The researchers also reported that new fiber-optic technology transfers their data much better than older technology at high temperatures, which has significantly slowed down transmission speeds.
This is important as data centers tend to heat up and use 24 / 7 cooling.
Capable of transmitting data at speeds of 57 Gbps at 85 degrees Celsius, the new technology will fix the problem which made it difficult for ISPs to keep up with the rate at which Internet services were eating up bandwidth.