The development of quantum technologies has been accelerating in the last decade, turning them into emerging technologies that need explicit attention by decision-makers at national funding agencies, companies, and governments. In this paper we consider the governance of quantum internet, a new type of network that distributes quantum information across distances and is developed under the promise that it can deliver intrinsically secure functions solely through its technical design. The paper gives an analysis of the functions quantum internet offers – from secure communication to linking quantum computers and quantum sensors – and then challenges this promise by arguing that trust, an essential precondition for users to adopt this technology, cannot be guaranteed by technical features alone. Instead, trust is fundamentally a social phenomenon, shaped by how quantum internet is governed, operated, and regulated. Therefore, the ultimate success of quantum internet in fulfilling its promise of secure communication will depend not just on its technical hardware and software but also on the policies and frameworks for running these capacities, and on the public trust in those policies and frameworks. With this argument we arrive at a number of recommendations to decision-makers for developing quantum internet and its governance in a way that quantum internet can be trusted for its promised capacities. For instance: organizations delivering hardware, operators, and regulation, should be kept apart to be independent sources for trust by users; third party organizations can provide independent checks to users of the operation of quantum internet; and transparency in policing of communication enables trust in the regulation of quantum internet.The development of quantum technologies has been accelerating in the last decade, turning them into emerging technologies that need explicit attention by decision-makers at national funding agencies, companies, and governments. In this paper we consider the governance of quantum internet, a new type of network that distributes quantum information across distances and is developed under the promise that it can deliver intrinsically secure functions solely through its technical design. The paper gives an analysis of the functions quantum internet offers – from secure communication to linking quantum computers and quantum sensors – and then challenges this promise by arguing that trust, an essential precondition for users to adopt this technology, cannot be guaranteed by technical features alone. Instead, trust is fundamentally a social phenomenon, shaped by how quantum internet is governed, operated, and regulated. Therefore, the ultimate success of quantum internet in fulfilling its promise of secure communication will depend not just on its technical hardware and software but also on the policies and frameworks for running these capacities, and on the public trust in those policies and frameworks. With this argument we arrive at a number of recommendations to decision-makers for developing quantum internet and its governance in a way that quantum internet can be trusted for its promised capacities. For instance: organizations delivering hardware, operators, and regulation, should be kept apart to be independent sources for trust by users; third party organizations can provide independent checks to users of the operation of quantum internet; and transparency in policing of communication enables trust in the regulation of quantum internet.

arXiv:2505.15852Ethics and SocietyAug 28, 20261 citation

The dawn of the quantum internet

Stephen Battersby

The New ScientistMay 1, 20212 citations

Advances in the quantum internet

László Gyöngyösi, Sándor Imre

A deep dive into the quantum Internet's potential to transform and disrupt.

Communications of the ACMJul 21, 2022155 citations

Quantum internet for resilient electric grids

Zimin Jiang, Zefan Tang, Yanyuan Qin +2 more

The supremacy and fast development of quantum techniques are stimulating the arrival of an ultra-secure and super-fast quantum internet, which accordingly will shape future electric grids. This paper develops a novel scheme for resilient electric grids by using a quantum direct communication (QDC) network. The novelty of this work includes: (a) a novel QDC-based electric grid architecture is devised to provide ultra-secure communication; (b) we investigate QDC protocols for grid communication and analyze the impacts of attacks and noises; and (c) we demonstrate how to establish a QDC-enabled electric grid testbed to evaluate the system's performance.The supremacy and fast development of quantum techniques are stimulating the arrival of an ultra-secure and super-fast quantum internet, which accordingly will shape future electric grids. This paper develops a novel scheme for resilient electric grids by using a quantum direct communication (QDC) network. The novelty of this work includes: (a) a novel QDC-based electric grid architecture is devised to provide ultra-secure communication; (b) we investigate QDC protocols for grid communication and analyze the impacts of attacks and noises; and (c) we demonstrate how to establish a QDC-enabled electric grid testbed to evaluate the system's performance.

International Transactions on Electrical Energy SystemsApr 26, 202122 citations

The Future Quantum Internet

Fabio Cavaliere, Rana Pratap Sircar, Tommaso Catuogno

Springer eBooksJan 1, 20222 citations

Distributing quantum states with finite lifetime

Stefano Maranò, Moe Z. Win

This paper considers a quantum node tasked with the teleportation of multiple information-carrying qubit (ICQ) streams, each to a different receiver, by means of entanglements, local operations, and classical communication. Our vision is that the node establishes entangled qubit pairs (EQPs) with the receivers before the arrival of ICQs, rather than waiting for their arrival. In this vein, the paper focuses on the class of protocols referred to as class $\mathcal{I}$ that instantaneously teleport arriving ICQs using preestablished EQPs, preventing arriving ICQs from decohering. The excess ratio ${\ensuremath{\varepsilon}}_{\mathrm{r}}$ is introduced as a quantifier of the system resources per arriving ICQ, and ${\ensuremath{\varepsilon}}_{\mathrm{r}}=1$ is shown to be a critical threshold. With ${\ensuremath{\varepsilon}}_{\mathrm{r}}>1$: for arrival streams characterized by interarrivals stochastically larger than exponential random variables, any member of class $\mathcal{I}$ teleports all arriving ICQs after a finite transient. With ${\ensuremath{\varepsilon}}_{\mathrm{r}}<1$: for stationary ergodic arrival streams, there exists no protocol that teleports all arriving ICQs after a finite transient. This work thus establishes the ultimate limit for distributing quantum states with finite lifetime. Within class $\mathcal{I}$ , a protocol referred to as fresh information delivery (FID) is introduced and its optimality is proven. The operational characteristic of FID is provided in terms of the tradeoff between the waiting time of the EQP before it is utilized for teleportation and the excess ratio. Numerical experiments, comparing the proposed FID protocol with alternatives, corroborate the theoretical results. The results in this paper can be used for designing quantum nodes, paving the way for the implementation of the future quantum internet.This paper considers a quantum node tasked with the teleportation of multiple information-carrying qubit (ICQ) streams, each to a different receiver, by means of entanglements, local operations, and classical communication. Our vision is that the node establishes entangled qubit pairs (EQPs) with the receivers before the arrival of ICQs, rather than waiting for their arrival. In this vein, the paper focuses on the class of protocols referred to as class $\mathcal{I}$ that instantaneously teleport arriving ICQs using preestablished EQPs, preventing arriving ICQs from decohering. The excess ratio ${\ensuremath{\varepsilon}}_{\mathrm{r}}$ is introduced as a quantifier of the system resources per arriving ICQ, and ${\ensuremath{\varepsilon}}_{\mathrm{r}}=1$ is shown to be a critical threshold. With ${\ensuremath{\varepsilon}}_{\mathrm{r}}>1$: for arrival streams characterized by interarrivals stochastically larger than exponential random variables, any member of class $\mathcal{I}$ teleports all arriving ICQs after a finite transient. With ${\ensuremath{\varepsilon}}_{\mathrm{r}}<1$: for stationary ergodic arrival streams, there exists no protocol that teleports all arriving ICQs after a finite transient. This work thus establishes the ultimate limit for distributing quantum states with finite lifetime. Within class $\mathcal{I}$, a protocol referred to as fresh information delivery (FID) is introduced and its optimality is proven. The operational characteristic of FID is provided in terms of the tradeoff between the waiting time of the EQP before it is utilized for teleportation and the excess ratio. Numerical experiments, comparing the proposed FID protocol with alternatives, corroborate the theoretical results. The results in this paper can be used for designing quantum nodes, paving the way for the implementation of the future quantum internet.

Physical Review AMay 17, 202310 citations

\mathcal{I}

that instantaneously teleport arriving ICQs using preestablished EQPs, preventing arriving ICQs from decohering. The excess ratio ${\ensuremath{\varepsilon}}_{\mathrm{r}}$ is introduced as a quantifier of the system resources per arriving ICQ, and ${\ensuremath{\varepsilon}}_{\mathrm{r}}=1$ is shown to be a critical threshold. With ${\ensuremath{\varepsilon}}_{\mathrm{r}}>1$: for arrival streams characterized by interarrivals stochastically larger than exponential random variables, any member of class

\mathcal{I}

teleports all arriving ICQs after a finite transient. With ${\ensuremath{\varepsilon}}_{\mathrm{r}}<1$: for stationary ergodic arrival streams, there exists no protocol that teleports all arriving ICQs after a finite transient. This work thus establishes the ultimate limit for distributing quantum states with finite lifetime. Within class

\mathcal{I}

, a protocol referred to as fresh information delivery (FID) is introduced and its optimality is proven. The operational characteristic of FID is provided in terms of the tradeoff between the waiting time of the EQP before it is utilized for teleportation and the excess ratio. Numerical experiments, comparing the proposed FID protocol with alternatives, corroborate the theoretical results. The results in this paper can be used for designing quantum nodes, paving the way for the implementation of the future quantum internet.