Racing to a new internet future

Lightning internet speeds, more robust connections and a huge increase in network capacity, all at little extra cost. That's not a vision of the future; it would be a reality soon with groundbreaking fibre-optic technology. A project, known as Sardana, involving a consortium of European universities and research institutes, has demonstrated speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second (Gbps), around 2,000 times quicker than the fastest internet speed today. Researchers also showed that such speeds can be achieved at relatively little extra cost using existing fibre infrastructure. But the fully optical technology, which is still in experimental stage, would mark a giant leap in network performance. According to estimates, annual global internet traffic will need to be measured in zettabytes (one trillion gigabytes) within the next three years, a four-fold increase from today and the data equivalent of all the movies ever made passing through operators' networks every five minutes, according to a statement.