What is world's fastest internet speed? It can download entire Netflix library in less than 1 second

New Delhi: Researchers from University College London (UCL) in the UK have claimed that they have achieved the world's fastest internet data transmission rate, a speed which would make it possible to download the entire Netflix library in less than a second.

The researchers from University College London (UCL) in the UK achieved a data transmission rate of 178 terabits a second -- five times faster than the previous record.

The record, described in a research paper published in the journal IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, is double the capacity of any system currently deployed in the world.

“Working with two companies, Xtera and KDDI Research, the research team led by Dr Lidia Galdino (UCL Electronic & Electrical Engineering), achieved a data transmission rate of 178 terabits a second (178,000,000 megabits a second) – a speed at which it would be possible to download the entire Netflix library in less than a second,” according to a statement by UCL.

The record, is double the capacity of any system currently deployed in the world, UCL said. It was achieved by transmitting data through a much wider range of colours of light, or wavelengths, than is typically used in optical fibre, the researchers said.

The researchers combined different amplifier technologies needed to boost the signal power over this wider bandwidth and maximised speed by developing new Geometric Shaping (GS) constellations, manipulating the properties of each individual wavelength.

The new record, demonstrated in a lab, is a fifth faster than the previous world record held by a team in Japan, the researchers said.

At this speed, it would take less than an hour to download the data that made up the world's first image of a black hole, they said.

The speed is close to the theoretical limit of data transmission set out by American mathematician Claude Shannon in 1949, according to the researchers.

“The benefit of the technique is that it can be deployed on already existing infrastructure cost-effectively, by upgrading the amplifiers that are located on optical fibre routes at 40-100km intervals. (Upgrading an amplifier would cost £16,000, while installing new optical fibres can, in urban areas, cost up to £450,000 a kilometre.),” UCL said.

"While current state-of-the-art cloud data-centre interconnections are capable of transporting up to 35 terabits a second, we are working with new technologies that utilise more efficiently the existing infrastructure," Lead author Dr Galdino, a Lecturer at UCL and a Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellow, said .