High bandwidth demonstration

1st April 2026, the COSMA support team demonstrated the high bandwidth data transfer between the Physics Department and Department of Computer Science at Durham University, a 0.5km direct distance.

A transfer rate of about 960 Tbit/s was achieved, over a high latency connection, with the distance travelled by the data being about 0.6 miles. This bandwidth is about the same as the combined broadband speed of 10 million average UK homes (assuming a median internet speed of around 90 Mbps (73Mbps in 2024).

This impressive feat was achived by loading 800 LTO-9 tapes (18TB native capacity) into the Physics van (Ford Transit), and driving it up to the Computer Science department, a journey taking around 120 seconds.

The RTPs involved noted that far higher transfer rates could be achieved over shorter distances, or with a faster vehicle. For example, data transfer from the entrance of Physics to the entrance of the Mountjoy site on South Road, a journey time of around 10 seconds, would represent data transfer at over 11 Pbit/s, though with a reduced latency.