An international team of scientists working at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have set a new record for data transfer. The group was able to transfer data in opposite directions at a combined rate of 186Gbps (Gigabits per second) over a Wide Area Network (WAN) circuit, which is well beyond 2009's previous "peak-rate record" of 119Gbps.

The High-Energy Physics (HEP) team achieved the feat by using a 100Gbps circuit, which is run by Canada's Advanced Research and Innovation Network (CANARIE) and BCNET, to transfer data (98Gbps in one direction and 88Gbps in the other) between the University of Victoria Computing Centre (Victoria, British Columbia) and the Washington State Convention Centre (Seattle).


The technology should ultimately find its way into the next generation of undersea intercontinental fibre optics cable, as well as inland connectivity, which are expected to be built within the next two years. It will also help big science projects like the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, which needs to move and crunch vast amounts of data every second.


The feat itself was achieved by using highly tuned servers, many of which contained new networking hardware that was still in the alpha to beta stages of development, and transfer applications like FDT. You can find more details by looking at an overview of the 100GE Network Demonstration. There's also a video on YouTube, although it merely restates what we've written above.