The Internet as we know it has had an immense impact on the way we communicate. We can now do it faster and more securely than ever before. Enabling quantum communication between any two points on Earth is the next step towards even more secure communication. This is the goal of the quantum internet. Although it is hard to predict all of the applications for the quantum internet, many protocols running on a network connecting nodes able to process qubits have already been identified. Typically, these applications require many qubits to be realized, a requirement which will not likely be met in the early quantum internet.
The Internet as we know it has had an immense impact on the way we communicate. We can now do it faster and more securely than ever before. Enabling quantum communication between any two points on Earth is the next step towards even more secure communication. This is the goal of the quantum internet. Although it is hard to predict all of the applications for the quantum internet, many protocols running on a network connecting nodes able to process qubits have already been identified. Typically, these applications require many qubits to be realized, a requirement which will not likely be met in the early quantum internet.
The advanced notebooks, mobile phones, and internet applications in today’s world that we use are all entrenched in classical communication bits of zeros and ones. Classical internet has laid its foundation originating from the amalgamation of mathematics and Claude Shannon’s theory of information. However, today’s internet technology is a playground for eavesdroppers. This poses a serious challenge to various applications that rely on classical internet technology, and it has motivated the researchers to switch to new technologies that are fundamentally more secure. By exploring the quantum effects, researchers paved the way into quantum networks that provide security, privacy, and range of capabilities such as quantum computation, communication, and metrology. The realization of Quantum Internet (QI) requires quantum communication between various remote nodes through quantum channels guarded by quantum cryptographic protocols. Such networks rely upon quantum bits (qubits) that can simultaneously take the value of zeros and ones. Due to the extraordinary properties of qubits such as superposition, entanglement, and teleportation, it gives an edge to quantum networks over traditional networks in many ways. At the same time, transmitting qubits over long distances is a formidable task and extensive research is going on satellite-based quantum communication, which will deliver breakthroughs for physically realizing QI in near future. In this paper, QI functionalities, technologies, applications and open challenges have been extensively surveyed to help readers gain a basic understanding of the infrastructure required for the development of the global QI.
The stages of a quantum internet As indispensable as the internet has become in our daily lives, it still has many shortcomings, not least of which is that communication can be intercepted and information stolen. If, however, the internet attained the capability of transmitting quantum information—qubits—many of these security concerns would be addressed. Wehner et al. review what it will take to achieve this so-called quantum internet and propose stages of development that each correspond to increasingly powerful applications. Although a full-blown quantum internet, with functional quantum computers as nodes connected through quantum communication channels, is still some ways away, the first long-range quantum networks are already being planned. Science , this issue p. eaam9288
Quantum Information
As indispensable as the internet has become in our daily lives, it still has many shortcomings, not least of which is that communication can be intercepted and information stolen. If, however, the internet attained the capability of transmitting quantum information—qubits—many of these security concerns would be addressed. Wehner et al. review what it will take to achieve this so-called quantum internet and propose stages of development that each correspond to increasingly powerful applications. Although a full-blown quantum internet, with functional quantum computers as nodes connected through quantum communication channels, is still some ways away, the first long-range quantum networks are already being planned.
Science , this issue p. [eaam9288][1]
[1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aam9288
The vision of a quantum internet is to fundamentally enhance Internet technology by enabling quantum communication between any two points on Earth. While the first realisations of small scale quantum networks are expected in the near future, scaling such networks presents immense challenges to physics, computer science and engineering. Here, we provide a gentle introduction to quantum networking targeted at computer scientists, and survey the state of the art. We proceed to discuss key challenges for computer science in order to make such networks a reality.
The future of the Internet and of computer communication goes through modern physics. Using the new properties of quantum mechanics, various research laboratories around the world are building prototypes of “quantum networks”, a new way that uses some quantum physics principles to deliver information packets. In the near future our data will be able to travel on the Internet at very high speed, also greater than the speed of light, thanks to the quantum network. Independent research groups have already been able to demonstrate the entanglement of photons on fiber optic networks in China and Canada. The result can be considered as the first step for the realization of quantum telematic networks on a metropolitan scale and the connection at large distances of future computers based on quantum physics. But the quantum computer will be such a powerful system that can even damage the security of our systems and networks as we know them today, as well as to personal privacy, already threatened by current network rules.
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.