(ORDO NEWS) — The fastest internet network in the US just got a little faster. The Esnet network has been upgraded to ESnet6 and boasts an incredible 46 Tbps throughput. Alas, while this luxury is available only to scientists.
The original ESnet was created in 1986 to help scientists from various Department of Energy (DOE) labs across the U.S. come together, allowing them to rapidly share vast amounts of raw data.
It has had many updates over the decades to keep pace with advances in technology and the ever-increasing flow of information gleaned from scientific experimentation. In 2021, a staggering 1.1 exabytes of data was transferred over the network.
And here comes the next generational leap. ESnet6 consists of 24,000 km of dedicated fiber optic cables stretching across the country and providing network backbones, each of which can transfer data at speeds from 400 gigabits per second to 1 terabit per second.
It was already the world‘s fastest internet network, but now it’s even more powerful with up to 46 Tbps of bandwidth.
Curiously, however, this is not a record data transfer rate – this honor belongs to a pilot plant in Japan that has achieved a mind-boggling speed of 1 petabit per second (Pbps), which is 1000 Tbps.
In comparison, your home internet is likely to receive up to several hundred megabits per second (Mbps), while ESnet6 is equivalent to 46 million Mbps.
If you’re one of the lucky few with a 10Gbps fiber connection the fastest internet speed available to consumers ESnet6 still gives you a 46,000x head start.
ESnet6 is designed to enable scientists to transfer large datasets between teams, instruments, and facilities, and will be equipped to address large data-intensive research areas such as climate modeling, genomic studies, telescope observations, physics experiments, and quantum information.
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