Speed or security? Until now, telecom companies had to choose. Not anymore.
China has just achieved a milestone that could reshape the future of global data infrastructure: successfully transmitting data at one terabit per second over 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) with built-in, near-unbreakable encryption. This breakthrough effectively ends the decades-long trade-off between ultra-fast data transmission and high-level security.
The IEAC System: A Leap in Optical Data Protection
Historically, telecom providers faced a frustrating paradox—boosting data speeds often weakened encryption. Traditional security relied on software-based layers like TLS or IPsec, which protected the data but left the raw optical signal vulnerable to interception. Skilled attackers could tap directly into fiber-optic cables and bypass these protections entirely.
Enter the Integrated Encryption and Communication (IEAC) system, developed by Professor Lilin Yi and his Shanghai Jiao Tong University team. Instead of encrypting the data after it’s generated, IEAC transforms the light signal into an unbreakable code. It’s comparable in impact to China’s recent advances in satellite surveillance that can capture facial features from orbit.
Using AI-controlled constellation patterns that shift with each data burst, the system creates a kind of optical one-time pad—only readable by devices synchronized to the same random grid. Unauthorized interception becomes virtually impossible.
Terabit Speeds, Military-Grade Security
In real-world simulations over 1,200 km of fiber-optic loops, the IEAC system used 26 wavelengths across the full 3.9 THz C-band, with each channel carrying dual-polarization signals at 32 GBd. Despite the challenging conditions—optical noise, dispersion, and nonlinear distortion—the system maintained an error rate below 2 × 10^². It delivered net speeds of 1 terabit per second with less than 0.2 bits of information leakage per symbol.
Crucially, this innovation doesn’t require quantum cryptography or exotic hardware. It works with standard optical components already deployed in long-distance networks. In many cases, all that’s needed is a firmware update. That makes IEAC not just revolutionary, but realistic.
A New Layer of Defense for the AI Era
This breakthrough comes at a critical time. As AI, cloud computing, and global data exchange surge, so does the need to protect proprietary models, medical records, and financial transactions in transit. Embedding encryption directly into the physical layer—the light—removes the need for stacked software protections and streamlines network architecture.
Professor Yi calls the IEAC system a “bridge between tomorrow’s security and today’s data rates.” It also carries major implications for digital sovereignty. As nations scramble to defend their information infrastructure, tools that render fiber-level eavesdropping obsolete will gain immense strategic value.
While submarine cables and telecom routers may look the same, their function is poised to change dramatically. Light will no longer carry information—it will secure it.
