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Quantum Internet: How Close Are We To The Future Of Data Transmission?

Forbes Technology Council
POST WRITTEN BY
Nacho De Marco

A Wired article from 2017 made a bold claim — we could expect the quantum internet to be among us by 2030. Maybe it was the excitement surrounding the launch of a Chinese quantum satellite, which happened a year before the article was published. But why could we understand that claim as “bold”? Is it impossible for the quantum internet, often seen as the future of our communications, to be massively adopted 11 years from today?

Well, as the article clearly states, we don’t know that much about quantum communications, let alone a quantum internet. Experts are still figuring out some of the basic aspects surrounding it, from how to better transmit quantum data to how to store it. So, predicting this outcome for such a relatively short time is kind of bold.

What Is The Quantum Internet?

This seems like a simple question, doesn’t it? However, the answer could be more complex than you think. As Ronald Hanson, an experimental physicist working on the subject with a team from the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, puts it: “People talk about quantum networks to mean vastly different things.”

That should give you an idea of how chaotic the development surrounding the quantum internet is right now — there’s no agreement even in the terms and concepts used to build it! But there are certain things that can be said to somewhat understand what we mean by quantum internet. First, it’s important to discern what a quantum network is.

As with any network, a quantum network implies the interconnection of several nodes (devices or computers) that exchange quantum information instead of classic data. So, the second thing needed to understand the quantum internet is knowing what quantum information actually is.

The current model to transmit information between our computers uses a binary system comprised of 0s and 1s. The chain of those numbers is what constitutes the information that’s being exchanged. Quantum information, for its part, relies on quantum mechanics to transmit data. By using quantum bits (or qubits) as information units, this model is capable of superposing a 0 and a 1 in the same unit.

Though that seems rather odd and impossible, current experiments are using qubits to encode classical information in what’s called quantum key distribution (QKD). This is the most basic use of qubits for data transmission. The next step would imply the transfer of quantum states directly between the nodes through a property of quantum systems called entanglement.

When two particles of a quantum system interact, they can get entangled. Once that happens, both particles can be described with a single quantum state. In other words, any measurement applied to a particle instantly alters the state of the other particle, even when they are kilometers apart. So, instead of exchanging measurements and how to read them (as it happens with QKD), a quantum network could exchange quantum states between its nodes.

Of course, a quantum network isn’t the quantum internet. For that to happen, it would take something else for any two users connected to a wide network to be able to store and exchange qubits. We’re a long way from having that, though: There still aren’t networks connecting quantum processors (which will turn those networks into a quantum internet), nor are there quantum repeaters outside a lab (which will extend the limited range of qubit transmission).

Why Would Anyone Care If We Get There? 

Quantum internet could change a lot of things. In its earliest stages, it can provide a safer environment for data transmission since it could be impossible to decipher which state a series of qubits actually is without any entanglement. Additionally, quantum computers could serve for scientific research, from the measurement of gravitational waves to the sharpening of images taken by distant optical telescopes.

On a general level, a quantum internet could be the answer to tasks that call for coordination, synchronization and privacy at their highest levels. Thus, this kind of internet could be the solution for one of the biggest issues we face in our digital age — the security of our data. That’s not all. The possibilities of a quantum internet could change a lot of things, including how we communicate and even how we vote.

How Far Are We From A Quantum Internet? 

According to the Delft team of researchers, there are six steps before we get to a quantum internet:

1. Trusted-node network: This could also be considered step No. 0, as nothing truly “quantum-like” happens during transmission. In this step, users only use quantum-generated codes whose encryption key has to be shared (even by the service provider).

2. Prepare and measure: Users can send and measure quantum states, but there’s no entanglement. Users can share a private encryption key that no one else knows.

3. Entanglement distribution networks: Users can entangle states but not store them.

4. Quantum memory networks: Quantum information can be transmitted and stored through entanglement.

5. and 6. Quantum computing networks: The nodes connected through the network are quantum computers.

So you can see where we’re standing, right at the second step (prepare and measure) in this road map. The Chinese satellite launched in 2017 is the best effort to date for this kind of transmission, as it was able to link two laboratories separated by more than 1,200 kilometers.

In other words, we’re still several developments away from having a fully-fledged quantum internet. In fact, researchers’ opinions on this matter are varied, ranging from some who think that quantum computing won’t be as beneficial as everyone’s claiming to people who believe we’ll get there — only that it’ll take some time."

However, given the number of challenges ahead and the diverse opinions of professionals in the field, we’ll likely see that Wired article get lost in the digital sands of our current internet before we get to the Holy Land of quantum internet.

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