Fibre-optic line in Berlin quadruples

A fibre-optics connection in Berlin has set a new world data-speed record of 10.2 terabits per second, scientists said on March 9, opening up the prospect of faster internet links. The per-second quantity of serial data, four times the old record, is equivalent to the contents of 240 completely full DVD disks.
Testers pushed the data as flashes of light through a 29-kilometre coil of single-strand optical fibre at the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute in the German capital. The Technical University of Denmark shared in the research.
To beat the former record of 2.56 terabits per second, scientists increased the pulse rate of the light flashes and increased the amount of data encoded in each pulse to four bits. Current commercial systems crossing the world's oceans only transmit one-bit per pulse.