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National Conference on Communications

The Capacity of Photonic Erasure Channels with Detector Dead Times

Jaswanthi Mandalapu, Krishna Jagannathan

Published Jul 27, 2021• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We consider a photonic communication system wherein the photon detector suffers a random ‘dead time’ following each successful photon detection. If subsequent photon arrivals occur during the dead time, the information contained in the photons is assumed to be erased. We refer to such channels as photonic erasure channels and derive fundamental limits on the rate at which classical information can be transmitted on such channels. We assume photon arrivals according to a Poisson process, and consider two classes of detectors - paralyzable and nonparalyzable. We derive explicit expressions for the capacity of photonic erasure channels, for any general distribution of the dead times of the detector. For a photonic erasure channel with a nonparalyzable detector, we show that the capacity depends only on the expected dead time. On the other hand, with a paralyzable detector, the channel capacity depends on the dead time distribution through its Laplace transform.

DOI
10.1109/ncc52529.2021.9530152

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We consider a photonic communication system wherein the photon detector suffers a random ‘dead time’ following each successful photon detection. If subsequent photon arrivals occur during the dead time, the information contained in the photons is assumed to be erased. We refer to such channels as photonic erasure channels and derive fundamental limits on the rate at which classical information can be transmitted on such channels. We assume photon arrivals according to a Poisson process, and consider two classes of detectors - paralyzable and nonparalyzable. We derive explicit expressions for the capacity of photonic erasure channels, for any general distribution of the dead times of the detector. For a photonic erasure channel with a nonparalyzable detector, we show that the capacity depends only on the expected dead time. On the other hand, with a paralyzable detector, the channel capacity depends on the dead time distribution through its Laplace transform.
We consider a setting where a stream of qubits is processed sequentially. We derive fundamental limits on the rate at which classical information can be transmitted using qubits that decohere as they wait to be processed. Specifically, we model the sequential processing of qubits using a single server queue, and derive expressions for the classical capacity of such a quantum `queue-channel.' Focusing on quantum erasures, we obtain an explicit single-letter capacity formula in terms of the stationary waiting time of qubits in the queue. Our capacity proof also implies that a `classical' coding/decoding strategy is optimal, i.e., an encoder which uses only orthogonal product states, and a decoder which measures in a fixed product basis, are sufficient to achieve the classical capacity of the quantum erasure queue-channel. More broadly, our work begins to quantitatively address the impact of decoherence on the performance limits of quantum information processing systems.
Recent advances in quantum key distribution (QKD) have given rise to systems that operate at transmission periods significantly shorter than the dead times of their component single-photon detectors. As systems continue to increase in transmission rate, security concerns associated with detector dead times can limit the production rate of sifted bits. We present a model of high-speed QKD in this limit that identifies an optimum transmission rate for a system with given link loss and detector response characteristics.
We study the fundamental limits of classical communication using quantum states that decohere as they traverse through a network of queues. We consider a network of Markovian queues, known as a Jackson network, with a single source or multiple sources and a single destination. Qubits are communicated through this network with inevitable buffering at intermediate nodes. We model each node as a ‘queue-channel,’ wherein as the qubits wait in buffer, they continue to interact with the environment and suffer a waiting time-dependent noise. Focusing on erasures, we first obtain explicit classical capacity expressions for simple topologies such as tandem queue-channel and parallel queue-channel. Using these as building blocks, we characterize the classical capacity of a general quantum Jackson network with waiting time-dependent erasures. Throughout, we study two types of quantum networks, namely, (i) Repeater-assisted and (ii) Repeater-less. We also obtain optimal pumping rates and routing probabilities to maximize capacity in simple topologies. More broadly, our work quantifies the impact of delay-induced decoherence on the fundamental limits of classical communication over quantum networks.
Expressions for the information rate and capacity of amplitude-modulated photon beams are available in literature. Recent interest in position-modulated laser pulses has motivated the investigation of the following model: A random variable D, which can take on values in the interval (−T, T), is transmitted by centering a narrow, coherent, single-mode light pulse of duration 2D and constant irradiance at t=D. It is assumed that no other than quantum fluctuations, of the otherwise stable source, disturb the transmission. The information that the received photon packet carries about D is registered as the instants {tk} of emission of photoelectrons at the detector. If H denotes the D and Q, the expected number of photoelectrons is 2D, and D≪T, then the mutual information between the D− and {tk} ensembles is, for large Q, approximately H−ln(2D/ρQ). Here, ρ = exp(γ − 1) and γ is Euler’s constant. Under the peak-excursion constraint |D|≤T, this is maximized by H = ln2T, for uniformly distributed D, so that for large Q the capacity C = ln(ρQT/D). The accurate expression, valid for all Q, involves the exponential integral E1(Q). The value of C is used to derive a lower bound on the mean-square error of any estimator of D, by the rate-distortion method. The bound, which decreases as Q2, is compared with the variance of maximum-a-posteriori-probability estimators of delay which, in the case of differentiable pulses, decreases only as Q.
The classical capacity of a noisy optical channel is the maximum rate at which information can be transmitted reliably, given a constraint on the mean input energy. For the ubiquitous bosonic Gaussian channels, which include standard models of loss and noise in fibre and free-space optical links, determining this rate requires addressing whether entanglement between channel uses or non-Gaussian signals can outperform Gaussian encodings. More precisely, the question is whether the energy-constrained Holevo information is additive across arbitrarily many channel uses and coincides with its Gaussian counterpart. We answer these fundamental questions in the affirmative for every single-mode bosonic Gaussian channel at every input energy. Namely, we prove that independently prepared Gaussian states with Gaussian-distributed random displacements achieve the capacity, including in the low-energy regime where squeezing the signals competes with encoding information in their displacement. Our proof connects an entanglement inequality to a sharp, additive lower bound on output entropy. We then characterise communication above capacity: under a strict total photon-number cutoff, the probability of correct decoding decreases exponentially with the number of channel uses, and we derive explicit bounds on the decay exponent. When only the mean photon number is constrained, a simple energy-rescaling formula determines exactly the entire asymptotic rate--error trade-off: the capacity at mean photon number NNN and allowed average decoding error εεε equals the vanishing-error capacity at mean photon number N/(1−ε)N/(1-ε)N/(1−ε). Together, these results identify the ultimate limits of classical communication for some of the most fundamental models of optical communication.