A 2023 report said a laboratory fiber-optic demonstration transmitted 22.9 petabits per second, more than 20 times an estimate of global internet traffic per second. That is an aggregate data rate in an experiment—not a claim that home broadband became 20 times faster. Separate work from Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) and a 2025 Nature Communications paper shows how multicore fibers and wider optical bandwidth are pushing transmission capacity forward, with different experiments trading off speed, distance and system complexity.
What does “20 times global internet traffic per second” mean?
The 22.9-petabit-per-second figure is attributed to a 2023 New Atlas report, which compared the demonstration’s total throughput with estimated global internet traffic per second. A petabit is 1,000 terabits; 22.9 petabits per second is therefore an extremely high aggregate rate measured across the experimental transmission system.
The comparison does not mean the fiber carried the world’s internet traffic, nor that an individual connection—or a household—could receive data at 20 times its current speed. It compares a laboratory system’s combined capacity with an estimate of global traffic. The report’s headline figure is distinct from later NICT demonstrations described below.
How do the reported fiber demonstrations compare?
These results are not a single progression in which each experiment tests the same system under the same conditions. Some maximize data rate over a short distance; another demonstrates petabit-scale capacity over a much longer modeled path.
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| Reported result | Rate and distance | Fiber and method | What the supplied source establishes |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Atlas report, 2023 | 22.9 Pb/s; distance not stated (New Atlas, 2023 report) | Core count, optical bandwidth and system details not stated (New Atlas, 2023 report) | Reported as more than 20 times estimated global internet traffic per second (New Atlas, 2023 report). |
| NICT, 2024 | 301 Tb/s; distance not stated (NICT, 2024 announcement) | Fiber and experimental details not stated in the announcement summary (NICT, 2024 announcement). | A reported transmission-capacity result; it is not the 402 Tb/s experiment (NICT, 2024 announcement). |
| NICT, 2024 | 402 Tb/s over 50 km (NICT, 2024) | Commercial-fiber experiment covering 37.6 THz and up to 1,505 channels; multiple doped-fiber amplifier variants, Raman amplification and dual-polarization QAM. | Expanded wavelength-band use and many channels raise capacity in a single-core system (NICT, 2024). |
| NICT, 2025 | 430.2 Tb/s over 10 km (NICT, 2025 announcement) | Standard-compliant fiber with expanded spectral techniques; core count and other implementation details not stated in the announcement summary (NICT, 2025 announcement). | A separate short-distance demonstration, not a 1,808-km result (NICT, 2025 announcement). |
| NICT, 2025 | More than 1 Pb/s over 1,808 km (NICT, 2025) | 19-core, standard-cladding fiber; 19 recirculating loops through an 86.1-km fiber, with digital signal processing and multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) processing. | NICT reports capacity above 1 petabit per second and total transmission distance of 1,808 km; the distance was achieved using recirculating loops (NICT, 2025). |
| Nature Communications, 2025 | Throughput potential approximately 20 times that of single-mode fiber; a specific rate and distance are not stated in the paper summary. | Randomly coupled 19-core fiber within standard 125-micrometre cladding. | The paper describes a design’s throughput potential, not the same measurement as the 22.9-Pb/s report or NICT’s long-distance demonstration. |
How can one fiber carry so much data?
Send data through multiple cores
Ordinary single-mode fiber carries light through one core. A multicore fiber puts several cores inside one cladding, so independent spatial channels can travel through the same physical strand. The 19-core approach described in Nature Communications keeps the outside cladding at the standard 125-micrometre diameter. The paper says throughput is approximately proportional to core count and estimates roughly 20 times the throughput of single-mode fiber at that diameter.
In the reported design, the cores are randomly coupled: light can interact across cores rather than staying perfectly isolated. This creates interference that the receiver must handle. NICT’s long-distance demonstration used MIMO processing in its digital signal processor to separate the core signals and calculate the available data rate.
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Use more of the optical spectrum
Capacity can also rise by sending more wavelength channels, including through wavelength bands beyond the commonly used C band. NICT’s 402-Tb/s, 50-km experiment used 37.6 THz of optical bandwidth across O, E, S, C, L and U bands, with up to 1,505 channels. Amplification across such a broad spectrum required a combination of doped-fiber amplifier variants, Raman amplification and optical gain equalizers; the transmission used high-order dual-polarization QAM.
These are two different capacity strategies: multicore fiber adds spatial channels inside one strand, while wideband transmission uses more wavelengths. A system can face engineering challenges in either approach, and its headline rate alone does not describe how far it transmits or what equipment the receiver needs.
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What does the 1,808-kilometre result prove?
NICT’s 2025 result is notable because it combines more than 1 petabit per second with a reported total distance of 1,808 km using 19-core, standard-cladding fiber. The experiment passed signals through 19 recirculating loops of an 86.1-km fiber; the stated distance is the total looped transmission distance, not a claim that researchers laid a single uninterrupted 1,808-km length of this experimental fiber.
The receiver’s MIMO processing addressed interference between cores. That processing is part of the system: multicore capacity is not simply a matter of connecting a many-core strand to conventional equipment and expecting every channel to remain separate without signal processing.
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- High-End: This metal-free fiber optic audio cable, featuring a fully flexible PVC jacket, is entirely immune to electrical interference. Each cable undergoes multi-stage testing during manufacturing to ensure maximum product quality and durability
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Can this be deployed in existing networks?
Keeping multicore fiber within a standard 125-micrometre cladding is important because it may preserve compatibility with established manufacturing methods, connectors, tooling and deployment practices. The 2025 paper presents that format as a way to increase capacity while retaining the familiar outside dimensions.
That does not establish that the experimental 19-core fiber can be swapped directly into today’s networks. The demonstrations rely on specialized transmission and receiving arrangements, including amplification and, for coupled cores, coordinated digital processing. The cited results target capacity needs in metropolitan, data-center and long-haul links, with an aim of reusing as much infrastructure as practical; they do not announce a general commercial rollout or a date when carriers will adopt the technology.
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What to take away from the headline
- 22.9 Pb/s is the figure in a 2023 report and its comparison with estimated worldwide traffic—not an end-user broadband speed.
- About 20× is also the 2025 paper’s estimated throughput potential for a 19-core fiber relative to single-mode fiber at standard cladding diameter; it is not interchangeable with the reported 22.9-Pb/s result.
- Distance matters: the 1.02-Pb/s-class NICT result demonstrated more than 1 Pb/s over 1,808 km using recirculating loops, while NICT’s 402-Tb/s and 430.2-Tb/s demonstrations were over 50 km and 10 km, respectively.
- Deployment is an engineering challenge: core coupling, broad-spectrum amplification, receiver processing and compatibility all matter alongside the peak rate.
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