Siemens Breaks Network Speed Record

German electronics company Siemens said Wednesday that it had set a new network speed record, achieving a speed of 107 gigabits -- the equivalent of roughly two DVDs worth of data -- per second, two and a half times faster than the previous record.

The test transmission was conducted on a 100-mile stretch of fiber-optic cable in the U.S. It also marks the first time such a test was performed outside of the laboratory. Siemens says the continuing surge in multimedia applications necessitates such high bandwidth needs.

At the core of the faster speeds is an entirely new transmission and reception system. This development allows the processing of data without the need to split the traffic into different channels to prevent bottlenecks.

Siemens' developments are especially promising for those working on increasing the current network ceiling of 10 gigabits to 100 gigabits, although most residential-based deployments have transmission limits of one gigabyte or less.

"Ethernet has long been the data communication standard on corporate and home networks," Siemens said.

Regarding the new technology, the company said that one of its advantages "is that the data is no longer transmitted over switched connections to the end customer, but in packets that can be routed over alternate lines to bypass overloaded or very busy network sections."

The first products taking advantage of the technology will begin appearing in the next few years.