Therefore researchers at the University of Southampton in England decided to use a hollow optical fiber where the light travels through the air in the fiber, rather than through the medium of glass. That way they get the 99.7% effective speed of signal transmission from the speed of light in a vacuum, which is the best result for the fiber optic connection so far.

Unfortunately, signal loss is 3.5 dB/km, which is too much for the technology in its current form to be used for long distance communication, such as links between ISPs or transatlantic cables. However, technology in current form can be used to connect computers in data and processing centers. Transfer rate in the test was 1.48 Tb/s and consisted of 37 channels, each with 40 Gb/s links. The goal is to reduce losses in the signal below 0,2 dB/km, so this technology could be used to connect remote centers.

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