The fastest internet network in the US just got a bit faster. The Energy Sciences Network (Esnet) has been upgraded to ESnet6, boasting a blistering bandwidth of 46 Terabits per second (Tbps). But don’t warm up your downloading fingers just yet – it’s strictly scientists only.
The original ESnet was established in 1986 to help connect scientists at various Department of Energy (DOE) labs around the US, allowing them to quickly share huge amounts of raw data. In the decades since, it’s had many upgrades to keep pace with the advances in technology and the sheer amount of data generated by scientific experiments. In 2021, a staggering 1.1 exabytes of data was transmitted over the network.
And now comes the next generational leap. ESnet6 is made up of 15,000 miles (24,000 km) of dedicated fiber optic cables spanning the country, enabling network backbone links that can each transfer data between 400 Gigabits per second (Gbps) and 1 Tbps. It was already the fastest internet network in the world, but now it just solidifies that lead with a bandwidth of up to 46 Tbps. Intriguingly though, this isn't a record data transmission speed – that honor belongs to an experimental setup in Japan, which achieved a mind-boggling
1 Petabit per second (Pbps), which is 1,000 Tbps.
newatlas.com
