A team of researchers from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) Photonics High-Speed Optical Communications Group has reclaimed the record for the world's fastest single-transmitter data transfer.

The Danish team used one laser transmitter with a new type of single multi-core optical fiber that allows simultaneous passage of multiple data streams to a rate of 43 terabits per second.

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The fiber used in the new network technology permits faster data transfer because it's a seven core solution instead of the single core commonly used in standard fibers.

It was manufactured by the Japanese giant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) and will soon be available for commercial distribution.

The record of 43 terabits per second is equal to 5.4 terabytes per second, which is about 5,375 gigabytes per second to be exact.

It means the new network technology can transfer the entire contents of a 1 TB hard drive in a fifth of a second.

Experts at technology weblog ExtremeTech explained that the speed is the same as downloading a 1 GB DVD rip movie in 0.2 milliseconds.

The team at DTU formerly set the record in 2009. Two years later, a team from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany stole the record and set a transfer speed of 26 terabits per second in a single fiber network.

While internet speed benchmarks are currently trending, what makes the Danish team's record notable is the set-up that they chose to achieve it.  

Faster transfer speeds have been recorded in the past, but required a set of combined multiple fibers and lasers working together all at once.

The team only used a network of single-laser and single fiber, which is more practical and can easily be reproduce for commercial applications.

With that, researchers attained their goal of identifying solutions for the internet that reduce energy consumption while simultaneously increasing bandwidth.

TagsTechnical University of Denmark (DTU), Photonics High-Speed Optical Communications Group, 43 terabits per second, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT), ExtremeTech, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology