A pioneering technological system consisting of fiber optic equipment has demonstrated that it is possible to modulate optical wavelengths at speeds of up to 100 Gb per second, which means multiplying by ten the current maximum data transmission capacity in networks, which is 10 Gb per second.
The possibilities of this new technology for data transmission in networks, whose market implementation is expected in mid-2011, are enormous, according to those responsible, since it allows, for example, the transmission, in just twelve hours, of a data volume equivalent to 125.000 DVDs, 500.000 pages of text or the entire United States Library of Congress.
Currently, there are several companies working with this new type of technology, with a view to more than multiplying the current data transmission capacities on the Internet, since, according to experts, networks are being saturated due to the dizzying increase in downloads. (music, videos,...), due to the proliferation of social networks and the exchange of data between netizens.
The American company Ciena, specialized in optical transport and Ethernet carrier solutions, is, so far, "the first that has managed to transmit volumes of information of up to 100 Gb per second with absolute security", with a prototype that, according to forecasts , will take about two years to be marketed, as explained by the general director for southern Europe of this company, Antonio Gómez, based in Madrid.
At the end of last year, within the framework of a popular supercomputing fair in the United States, the Ciena company, together with the California Institute of Technology, achieved successful Internet payload transmission of 100 Gb per second, with a distance of 80 kilometers.
According to Gómez, apart from the advantage of transmitting such large amounts of information at such speed and with absolute security thanks to the application of this technology, it is estimated that each bit per second will cost 30% less than at present.
According to their data, in recent years there has been a progressive increase in data traffic on the network, approximately 20% each year, and the forecast is that the trend will continue or even increase.
In his opinion, "the trend is expected to continue, because the Internet has become popular; people use it for everything: to download music, videos, IPTV, for interactive traffic such as chats...)."
Gómez added that this situation has created "a great demand" by companies that provide connection services to end customers, such as telephone operators, both in fixed and mobile communications.
Academic and scientific networks also require large capacities for data transmission on the Internet, which increasingly share more projects on the Internet and work with enormous volumes of information that require high standards of security in the connections.
Some of these scientific examples They would be projects like REDIRIS or the experiments that are planned to be carried out at the largest particle accelerator in the world, the LHC (Large Hadron Collider), at CERN, in Geneva.
This unstoppable current that is accelerating innovation in the world, Gómez insisted, forces companies, and in particular those that provide Internet services to citizens, to adapt quickly to the new demands of citizens so as not to miss the train of competitiveness.