The Energy Sciences Network (Esnet), the fastest internet network in the US, has been upgraded to ESnet6, and now offers a bandwidth of 46 Terabits per second (Tbps).
ESnet was established in 1986 to help connect scientists at various Department of Energy (DOE) labs around the US, allowing them to share huge amounts of raw data.
It has a succession of upgrades to keep pace with advances in technology and the amount of data generated by scientific experiments. In 2021, 1.1 exabytes of data was transmitted over the network.
ESnet6 is made up of 15,000 miles of dedicated fibre optic cables spanning the country, enabling network backbone links that can each transfer data between 400 Gigabits per second (Gbps) and 1 Tbps.
To put this in to context, the average speed enjoyed by consumers at home is 100 or 200 Megabits per second (Mbps), ESnet6 is equivalent to 46 million Mbps.
source:
NewAtlas
Berkeley