Report: China Telecom and Partners Test 1,007-Kilometre Hollow-Core Fiber Link
Pandaily says the companies transmitted 800 gigabits per second per wavelength in both directions. The company-reported test points toward faster journeys for data, but does not establish the delay users would experience.
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Nov 2, 12:00 UTC ·
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China Telecom's research arm, fiber maker YOFC and ZTE have tested high-capacity transmission over more than 1,000 kilometres of hollow-core fiber, according to Pandaily, pursuing networks with less delay. [1]
The company-reported test carried 800 gigabits per second on each wavelength in each direction over a link measuring 1,007.48 kilometres. Pandaily gives the combined capacity as 128 terabits per second. The result has not been independently verified. [1]
The companies present the test as a step toward lower-latency backbone networks, the high-capacity connections that carry data between network hubs. They see potential uses in moving traffic associated with AI infrastructure. [1]
The attraction is straightforward: hollow-core fiber gives light a path through air rather than solid glass. That can shorten the journey a signal makes through a given length of cable. The engineering challenge is to preserve useful transmission capacity across long distances.
What the numbers mean
The test combines three measures that answer different questions: how far a signal travels, how much data each wavelength carries and how much traffic the system carries altogether.
A fiber can carry multiple wavelengths of light at once, each acting as a separate channel for data. The reported 800-gigabit rate applies to an individual wavelength in each direction. The 128-terabit figure is the reported overall total, not the speed of a single channel. [1]
Those distinctions matter when judging a network. More channels can increase total capacity without increasing the data rate of each channel. Sending traffic in both directions adds another part to the calculation. Neither figure, by itself, tells a customer how quickly a response will arrive.
The reported distance makes this a long-link transmission claim rather than a demonstration confined to a short stretch of fiber. But distance and capacity alone do not establish readiness for commercial service.
Why a hollow core matters
Conventional optical fiber guides light through a solid glass core. Hollow-core fiber instead guides it through a hollow channel. Light travels faster in air than in glass, so the design targets the time spent carrying the signal along the fiber.
That delay is called latency. Capacity and latency are separate properties: a connection can carry more data each second without reducing the time an individual signal takes to reach its destination.
The transmission result, if substantiated, would help make the case that this approach can also carry substantial traffic over a long link. [1] It would not, on its own, measure the performance of an AI service, which depends on more than the cable between its computers.
The next test is the detail
The test's measured latency, error rate and deployment prospects have yet to be established. Those engineering results will decide whether the approach can deliver dependable, lower-delay networks.
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