The maximum rates for reliably transmitting classical information over bosonic multiple-access channels (MACs) are derived when the transmitters are restricted to coherent-state encodings. Inner and outer bounds for the ultimate capacity region of the bosonic MAC are also presented. It is shown that the sum-rate upper bound is achievable with a coherent-state encoding and that the entire region is asymptotically achievable in the limit of large mean input photon numbers.
The maximum rates for reliably transmitting classical information over bosonic multiple-access channels (MACs) are derived when the transmitters are restricted to coherent-state encodings. Inner and outer bounds for the ultimate capacity region of the bosonic MAC are also presented. It is shown that the sum-rate upper bound is achievable with a coherent-state encoding and that the entire region is asymptotically achievable in the limit of large mean input photon numbers.
Bosonic channels describe quantum-mechanically many practical communication links such as optical, microwave, and radiofrequency. We investigate the maximum rates for the bosonic multiple access channel (MAC) in the presence of thermal noise added by the environment and when the transmitters utilize Gaussian state inputs. We develop an outer bound for the capacity region for the thermal-noise lossy bosonic MAC. We additionally find that the use of coherent states at the transmitters is capacity-achieving in the limits of high and low mean input photon numbers. Furthermore, we verify that coherent states are capacity-achieving for the sum rate of the channel. In the non-asymptotic regime, when a global mean photon-number constraint is imposed on the transmitters, coherent states are the optimal Gaussian state. Surprisingly however, the use of single-mode squeezed states can increase the capacity over that afforded by coherent state encoding when each transmitter is photon number constrained individually.
Communication over a classical multiple-access channel (MAC) with quantum entanglement resources is considered, whereby two transmitters share entanglement resources a priori. Leditzky et al. (2020) presented an example, defined in terms of a pseudo telepathy game, such that the sum rate with entangled transmitters is strictly higher than the best achievable sum rate without such resources. Here, we establish inner and outer bounds on the capacity region for the general MAC with entangled transmitters, and show that the previous result can be obtained as a special case. It has long been known that the capacity region of the classical MAC under a message-average error criterion can be strictly larger than with a maximal error criterion (Dueck, 1978). We observe that given entanglement resources, the regions coincide.
Entanglement is a valuable quantum resource in quantum information processing. In classical communication over quantum channels, it is known to boost the communication rate drastically. To generalize such a boost to more general scenarios, we provide computable limits on the communication over optical multiple-access channels (MACs) for both the entanglement-assisted and unassisted communication. For the unassisted case, we generalize the coherent-state achievable rate region and outer bound known for the thermal-loss case [B. J. Yen and J. H. Shapiro, Phys. Rev. A 72, 062312 (2005)] to general bosonic Gaussian MACs. For the assisted case, we generalize the two-mode squeezed vacuum rate region and the outer bound for the thermal-loss case [H. Shi et al., npj Quantum Inf. 7, 74 (2021)] to general bosonic MACs. In terms of the total communication rate of all senders, we prove additivity for general MACs, generalizing the two-sender version in M.-H. Hsieh et al., IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory 54, 3078 (2008). Furthermore, for optical communication modeled as phase-insensitive bosonic Gaussian MACs, we prove that the optimal total rate is achieved by Gaussian entanglement and therefore can be efficiently evaluated. The computable limits confirm entanglement's boosts in optical multiple-access communications. Finally, we formulate an entanglement-assisted version of minimum entropy conjecture, which leads to the additivity of the capacity region of phase-insensitive bosonic Gaussian MACs if it is true.
We study covert classical communication over quantum multiple-access channels (MACs) with general message sets. Specifically, we consider a fully quantum MAC with arbitrary message sets and an arbitrary number of transmitters. We demonstrate the feasibility of achieving a positive covert rate over this channel and establish general one-shot and asymptotic achievable rate regions. For classical-quantum MACs with general message sets, we establish the covert capacity, when the transmitters are restricted to deterministic encoding. Our result recovers, as a special case, known results for classical communication over classical MACs with general message sets, covert communication of a classical message over a classical channel with two transmitters, and classical communication over quantum MACs. We provide three examples of MACs to which our results can be applied, either directly or indirectly, to achieve positive covert rates. Specifically, we first study covert communication over a finite-dimensional MAC with a helper. We then analyze a classical Gaussian MAC with a helper and derive its covert capacity. Finally, we extend the analysis to a single-mode bosonic MAC with a helper and show that positive covert rates can also be achieved in this setting. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work to achieve positive-rate covert communication over both classical and quantum MACs.
Communication over a classical multiple-access channel (MAC) with entanglement resources is considered, whereby two transmitters share entanglement resources a priori before communication begins. Leditzky et al. (2020) presented an example of a classical MAC, defined in terms of a pseudo telepathy game, such that the sum rate with entangled transmitters is strictly higher than the best achievable sum rate without such resources. Here, we establish inner and outer bounds on the capacity region for the general MAC with entangled transmitters, and show that the previous result can be obtained as a special case. It has long been known that the capacity region of the classical MAC under a message-average error criterion can be strictly larger than with a maximal error criterion (Dueck, 1978). We observe that given entanglement resources, the regions coincide. Furthermore, we address the combined setting of entanglement resources and conferencing, where the transmitters can also communicate with each other over rate-limited links. Using superdense coding, entanglement can double the conferencing rate.