Hello terabit age! This fiber is fat, fast and programmable.

You know what the Internet is going to need? More bandwidth. Because, really, when it comes to capacity on those long-haul cables under the sea or surrounding cities, there’s always a need for more bits per second. This is why Ciena’s announcement of a chip that can deliver 17.6 terabits per second over existing fiber cables is so amazing.

The company’s new chip that can provide speeds up to 400 Gbps on existing fiber and double the capacity of those cables from the current 8.8 Tbps to the 17.6 number. It says the same chip can provide 100 Gbps speeds over the 9,000-kilometer trans-Pacific cables connecting the West Coast and Japan. This chip, which should begin delivering traffic on networks before the end of this year, is also programmable via an API. So even if the speeds weren’t impressive, the potential for programmable access networks is. Much like programmable networks inside the data center are a game-changer, being able to adjust capacity on a fiber optic cable via software, as opposed to swapping out telecommunications gear, means operators have new options for their products and pricing.