Germany’s Siemens AG has set a new speed record for electrical processing of data through a fiber-optic cable. Siemens said in a statement it had processed data using exclusively electrical means at 107 gigabits per second — roughly two full DVDs per second — and sent it over a single optical fiber channel in a 100 mile-long (161-kilometre) U.S. network, the first time outside of a laboratory.

Siemens said the advantage of its method of using electrical processing only was that it removed the need to split signals into multiple, lower data-rate signals to avoid bottlenecks — which makes transmission slower and more expensive.

“Such a system would be particularly interesting for the future 100-gigabit Ethernet on which the telecommunication providers are currently working,” Siemens said.

Siemens says it hopes to have systems based on their prototype within the next few years.

Read more @ Reuters.

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