The fastest data in the world

In labs around the world, networking experts are coming up with fibre optic systems capable of pushing data around even more rapidly than this. They are reaching extraordinary speeds of many petabits per second (Pbps), or 300 million times the average UK home broadband connection.

This is so fast that one can barely imagine how people will use such bandwidth in the future. But engineers are wasting no time in proving that it is possible. And they only want to go faster.

The duplex cable (with cores that either send or receive) from Cern to data centres in The Netherlands is just shy of 1,650km (I,025 miles) long, snaking from Geneva to Paris, then Brussels, and finally Amsterdam. Part of the challenge in reaching 800 Gbps was in beaming pulses of light such a long way. “Due to the distance, the power levels of that light decrease, so you have to amplify it at different locations,” explains Mr Opdenakker.

Every time one tiny subatomic particle smashes into another during experiments at the LHC, the impact generates staggering volumes of data – about one petabyte per second, external. That’s enough to fill 220,000 DVDs.

This is slimmed down for storage and study, but still requires hefty amounts of bandwidth. Plus, with an upgrade due by 2029, the LHC expects to produce even more scientific data than it does today, external.

“The upgrade increases the number of collisions by at least a factor of five,” says James Watt, senior vice president and general manager of optical networks at Nokia.