!! 43 TBPS OVER A SINGLE FIBER!!

43Tbps over a single fiber: World’s fastest network would let you download a movie in 0.2 seconds

A research group at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), which was the first to break the one-terabit barrier in 2009, has today managed to squeeze 43 terabits per second over a single optical fiber with just one laser transmitter. In a more user-friendly unit, 43Tbps is equivalent to a transfer rate of around 5.4 terabytes per second — or 5,375 gigabytes to be exact. Yes, if you had your hands on DTU’s new fiber-optic network, you could transfer the entire contents of your 1TB hard drive in a fifth of a second — or, to put it another way, a 1GB DVD rip in 0.2 seconds.



The previous record over a single optical fiber — 26 terabits per second, set by Karlsruhe Institute of Technology way back in 2011 — had remained unbroken for a surprisingly long period of time. DTU set a series of single-fiber world records in 2009 and 2011, but had since been forced to sit in Karlsruhe’s shadow — until now. This was obviously a pain point for the DTU researchers — the press release [Danish] announcing the new world record actually calls out Karlsruhe by name. I guess a bit of friendly competition never hurt anyone though, right?

The main thing about this world record is DTU’s use of a single laser over a single fiber. There have been plenty of network demonstrations of hundreds or even thousands of terabits (petabits) per second with multiple lasers over multiple fibers — but those demos are so far removed from the reality of fiber-optic networking that they’re not really worth discussing. When we talk about commercial fiber-optic links, we’re nearly always talking about single-laser-single-fiber, because that’s what the entire internet backbone is built upon. In other words, the techniques used by DTU to hit 43Tbps actually have a chance of making it into real-world networks in the next few years. You might soon be able to download a TV show or movie in quite literally the blink of an eye. [Read: Infinite-capacity wireless vortex beams.]

How did the DTU hit 43Tbps and steal the world record away from Karlsruhe? Well, rather amusingly, they kind of cheated. While the researchers did only use a single laser, it used multi-core fiber. This is still a single filament of glass fiber, but it has multiple individual channels that can each carry their own optical signal. In this case, DTU used multi-core optical fibers with seven cores, produced by Japanese telecom giant NTT. Back in 2011 when Karlsruhe set its 26Tbps record (with a single-core fiber), multi-core fibers were both difficult and expensive to manufacture — now, in 2014, it would seem the bugs have been ironed out and NTT is moving ahead with commercial deployments. 

4G coming to india right away

For average consumers, '3G' and '4G' are two of the most mysterious terms in the mobile technology dictionary, but they're used relentlessly to sell phones and tablets. If you're shopping for a new phone, the answer isn't clear-cut, and you shouldn't always go for the higher number. Our primer will help explain which technology to pick.

First things first, the "G" stands for a generation of mobile technology, installed in phones and on cellular networks. Each "G" generally requires you to get a new phone, and for networks to make expensive upgrades. The first two were analog cell phones (1G) and digital phones (2G). Then it got complicated.

Third-generation mobile networks, or 3G, came to the U.S. in 2003. With minimum consistent Internet speeds of 144Kbps, 3G was supposed to bring "mobile broadband." There are now so many varieties of 3G, though, that a "3G" connection can get you Internet speeds anywhere from 400Kbps to more than ten times that.

Here's a video to see 4g and 3g running live across each other (live speed test between 3G and 4G):

New generations usually bring new base technologies, more network capacity for more data per user, and the potential for better voice quality, too.

4G phones are supposed to be even faster, but that's not always the case. There are so many technologies called "4G," and so many ways to implement them, that the term is almost meaningless. The International Telecommunications Union, a standards body, tried to issue requirements to call a network 4G but they were ignored by carriers, and eventually the ITU backed down. 4G technologies include HSPA+ 21/42, WiMAX, and LTE (although some consider LTE the only true 4G of that bunch, and some people say none of them are fast enough to qualify.)

If you like to surf the Web and especially stream video, 4G can be heaven. If you connect a laptop to your mobile link, 4G makes a huge difference. In general, anything involving transferring large amounts of data gets a big boost from 4G. Watch out for the data limits on your service plan, though; it's easy to use up a lot of data very quickly with 4G.

If your phone is mostly for voice use, you have no need for 4G data. Save money and save battery life by choosing a device without the high-speed network.
If you live in an area that doesn't have 4G coverage, there's no advantage to a 4G phone. In fact, you'll have serious battery life problems if you buy an LTE phone and don't disable 4G LTE, as the radio's search for a non-existent signal will drain your battery quickly.

Here is a chart explaining 2g v/s 3g v/s 4g

Bharti Airtel, India’s largest mobile carrier by subscriber base, is offering high-speed fourth-generation (4G) services packs at lower prices than 3G plans for its customers ahead of the highly awaited Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio 4G launch. It is believed that the development comes after Reliance Jio said they would provide 10-12 times faster 4G wireless service compared to 3G networks at cheaper rates which is expected to launch by next year.

So that was about the new term 4G in communication industry. I hope it cleared all the doubts about 4G in your mind. We will come up with related information soon.

Stay tuned to keep yourself updated with this fast moving communication era.