The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) and Sumitomo Electric Industries have succeeded in an experiment of transmitting 1.02 petabits per second over 1,808 kilometers (roughly equivalent to the distance between Sapporo and Fukuoka) using a 19-core optical fiber with a standard outer diameter (0.125 mm). This result, when converted into the product of transmission capacity and distance, a general indicator of transmission capacity, is 1.86 exabits per second per kilometer, breaking the world record for optical fiber with a standard outer diameter.

Standard outer diameter 19-core optical fiber has previously been demonstrated to have a transmission capacity of over 1 petabit per second, but long-distance transmission of over 1,000 kilometers has not been demonstrated. This time, by developing a standard outer diameter 19-core optical fiber that achieves reduced loss in multiple wavelength bands used in commercial optical fiber transmission systems and an optical amplifier relay function compatible with that optical fiber, a world record for long-distance, large-capacity transmission has been achieved. The technology developed this time will greatly contribute to both the expansion of communication capacity and the extension of distance in optical communication infrastructure in the future when communication demand will increase.

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