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🎌 Japan Sets a New Speed Record
Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) announced the world’s first successful achievement of a 2 Tbps data rate in free-space optical (FSO) wireless communication.
The milestone was reached using miniature terminals suitable for installation on satellites and high-altitude platform stations (HAPS).
The 2 Tbps link was stably demonstrated over a 7.4 km path in a challenging urban environment, despite atmospheric turbulence.
The record was achieved through wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM), using five channels of 400 Gbps each.
This marks the first time terabit-class communication has been implemented with terminals small enough to be mounted on satellites or HAPS.
The breakthrough represents an important step toward non-terrestrial networks (NTN) for Beyond 5G/6G systems.
NICT plans further miniaturization for CubeSats and future demonstrations of FSO communication:
📌 2026 – up to 10 Gbps communication between a low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellite and a ground station;
📌 2027 – communication between a satellite and a HAPS.
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