Quantum information technology has the potential to revolutionize computing, communications, and security. To fully realize its potential, quantum processors with millions of qubits are needed, which is still far from being accomplished. Thus, it is important to establish quantum networks to enable distributed quantum computing to leverage existing and near-term quantum processors into more powerful resources. This paper introduces a protocol to distribute entanglements among quantum devices within classical-quantum networks with limited quantum links, enabling more efficient quantum teleportation in near-term hybrid networks. The proposed protocol uses entanglement swapping to distribute entanglements efficiently in a butterfly network, then classical network coding is applied to enable quantum teleportation while overcoming network bottlenecks and minimizing qubit requirements for individual nodes. Experimental results show that the proposed protocol requires quantum resources that scale linearly with network size, with individual nodes only requiring a fixed number of qubits. For small network sizes of up to three transceiver pairs, the proposed protocol outperforms the benchmark by using 17% fewer qubit resources, achieving 8.8% higher accuracy, and with a 35% faster simulation time. The percentage improvement increases significantly for large network sizes. We also propose a protocol for securing entanglement distribution against malicious entanglements using quantum state encoding through rotation. Our analysis shows that this method requires no communication overhead and reduces the chance of a malicious node retrieving a quantum state to 7.2%. The achieved results point toward a protocol that enables a highly scalable, efficient, and secure near-term quantum Internet.
Quantum information technology has the potential to revolutionize computing, communications, and security. To fully realize its potential, quantum processors with millions of qubits are needed, which is still far from being accomplished. Thus, it is important to establish quantum networks to enable distributed quantum computing to leverage existing and near-term quantum processors into more powerful resources. This paper introduces a protocol to distribute entanglements among quantum devices within classical-quantum networks with limited quantum links, enabling more efficient quantum teleportation in near-term hybrid networks. The proposed protocol uses entanglement swapping to distribute entanglements efficiently in a butterfly network, then classical network coding is applied to enable quantum teleportation while overcoming network bottlenecks and minimizing qubit requirements for individual nodes. Experimental results show that the proposed protocol requires quantum resources that scale linearly with network size, with individual nodes only requiring a fixed number of qubits. For small network sizes of up to three transceiver pairs, the proposed protocol outperforms the benchmark by using 17% fewer qubit resources, achieving 8.8% higher accuracy, and with a 35% faster simulation time. The percentage improvement increases significantly for large network sizes. We also propose a protocol for securing entanglement distribution against malicious entanglements using quantum state encoding through rotation. Our analysis shows that this method requires no communication overhead and reduces the chance of a malicious node retrieving a quantum state to 7.2%. The achieved results point toward a protocol that enables a highly scalable, efficient, and secure near-term quantum Internet.
Quantum information technology has the potential to revolutionize computing, communications, and security. To fully realize its potential, quantum processors with millions of qubits are needed, which are still far from being accomplished. Thus, it is important to establish quantum networks to enable distributed quantum computing to leverage existing and near-term quantum processors into more powerful resources. This paper proposes an efficient entanglement distribution protocol for classical-quantum networks with a limited number of quantum links, enabling quantum teleportation in near-term hybrid networks. The proposed protocol uses entanglement swapping and classical network coding to distribute entanglements efficiently while overcoming bottlenecks and minimizing qubit and link usage. Experimental results show that the proposed protocol requires quantum resources that scale linearly with network size, with individual nodes only requiring a fixed number of qubits. For small network sizes of up to three transceiver pairs, the proposed protocol outperforms the benchmark by using 17% fewer qubit resources, achieving 8.8% higher accuracy, and with a 35% faster simulation time. The percentage improvement increases significantly for large network sizes. We also propose a protocol for securing entanglement distribution against malicious entanglements using quantum state encoding through rotation. Our analysis shows that this method requires no communication overhead and reduces the chance of a malicious node retrieving the teleported state to 7.2%. The achieved results point toward a protocol that enables a highly scalable, efficient, and secure near-term quantum Internet.
The emergence of sixth-generation (6G) networks presents a promising paradigm aimed at meeting stringent quality-of-service (QoS) requirements, thereby paving the way for modern applications such as the metaverse. In contrast, the advent of quantum computers poses a significant threat to the security of such networks. However, the quantum Internet signifies a remarkable advancement in communication technology, harnessing the principles of quantum entanglement and superposition to facilitate unparalleled levels of security and efficient computations. Quantum communication can be achieved through the utilization of quantum entanglement. Through the exchange of entangled pairs between two entities, quantum communication becomes feasible, enabled by the process of quantum teleportation. Given the lossy nature of the channels and the exponential decoherence of the transmitted photons, a set of intermediate nodes can serve as quantum repeaters to perform entanglement swapping and directly entangle two distant nodes. Such quantum repeaters may be malicious and by setting up malicious entanglements, intermediate nodes can jeopardize the confidentiality of the quantum information exchanged between the two communication nodes. Hence, this paper proposes a quantum identity authentication protocol that protects quantum networks from malicious entanglements. Unlike the existing protocols, the proposed quantum authentication protocol does not require periodic refreshments of the shared secret keys. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed protocol can detect malicious entanglements with a 100% probability after an average of 4 authentication rounds. Moreover, the average number of authentication rounds required to detect an attack is reduced by 69% and 76.5% compared with benchmark protocols. Index Terms—Quantum identity authentication, quantum communications, malicious entanglement, quantum security, quantum Internet, 6G.
Quantum networks play a pivotal role in quantum information science, which not only provide a secure communication platform for remote access to quantum computers but also serve as the strategic core for achieving large-scale quantum information processing, forming the foundational infrastructure for the future global-scale quantum internet. Quantum teleportation, which enables the transmission of unknown quantum states over long distances by employing quantum entanglement together with classical communication, is essential for the distribution of quantum resources in the construction of the global-scale quantum internet. To realize a global-scale quantum internet, quantum repeater protocols represent one of the most promising approaches for enabling quantum communication between any nodes. This concise review presents representative experimental demonstrations of quantum teleportation for constructing quantum networks across different physical platforms. Along this trajectory, the review discusses current challenges, open issues, and future perspectives toward scalable and practical quantum internet.
Quantum networks aim to facilitate the fault-tolerant and secure transmission of quantum states across distant devices. The widely adopted quantum teleportation scheme requires multiple rounds of entanglement swapping and purification, leading to significant resource overhead and operational complexity. In this study, we propose a novel fault-tolerant and secure quantum communication scheme based on uncorrectable error injection. Our method exploits a quantum state encoding scheme based on quantum error correction codes, which strategically introduces uncorrectable errors to enhance security. It eliminates the need for entanglement distribution while reducing resource requirements. The injected errors protect against eavesdropping by preventing unauthorized parties from retrieving meaningful information. Security analysis shows that as the data length and encoded message size increase, information leakage becomes negligible relative to the size of the total message. Comparative performance analysis with existing approaches indicates that our method reduces transmission overhead while maintaining comparable fidelity in low-error regimes. These findings suggest that the proposed method offers a scalable and practical alternative for secure long-distance quantum communication, distributed quantum computing, and future quantum internet applications.
Abstract Quantum networks are a fundamental component of quantum technologies, playing a pivotal role in advancing distributed quantum computing and laying the groundwork for the future quantum internet. They offer a scalable modular architecture for quantum chips and support infrastructure for measurement-based quantum computing. Furthermore, quantum networks serve as the backbone of the quantum internet, ensuring high levels of security. Notably, the advantages of quantum networks in communication are contingent upon entanglement distribution, which faces challenges such as high latency in protocols relying on Bell pair distribution and bipartite entanglement swapping. Additionally, algorithms designed for multipartite entanglement routing encounter intractability issues, rendering them unsolvable within polynomial time. In this paper, we explore a novel approach to distribute graph states in quantum networks, leveraging local quantum coding (LQC) isometries and multipartite states transfer. We also present single-use bounds for stabilizer states distribution. Analogous to network coding, these bounds are attainable when appropriate isometries and stabilizer codes are selected for relay nodes, resulting in reduced latency in entanglement distribution. We further demonstrate the protocol’s advantages across various network performance metrics.
This paper proposes a novel quantum networking protocol leveraging quantum teleportation for rapid quantum information transfer within a network. Traditional quantum network architectures suffer from limited transmission speeds due to the requirement of physically transporting qubits. This protocol overcomes this limitation by utilizing the quantum entanglement and Bell states to facilitate instantaneous information transfer, circumventing the need for direct qubit conveyance. The core of the protocol relies on establishing and maintaining entanglement between nodes, followed by a Bell state measurement and classical communication to reconstruct the quantum state at the destination. This design offers a significantly faster method for quantum information distribution compared to conventional approaches. The theoretical framework is presented with detailed mathematical formulations of the key steps, including the Bell state measurement, the process of quantum state transfer, and the necessary classical communication protocols. This work contributes to the advancement of quantum networking technology and provides a foundation for future high-speed quantum communication systems.