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Quantum 2.0 Conference and Exhibition

Optical Fiber Characterization for the Operation of a Boston Area Quantum Network Testbed

P. Ben Dixon, Matthew E. Grein, Ryan P. Murphy, Mark L. Stevens, Scott A. Hamilton, Eric A. Bersin, Dirk Englund

Published Jan 1, 2022• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

We characterize a set of deployed fiber channels in the Boston metro-area for use in quantum networking. We measure fiber-induced phase shifts and frequency behavior of transmitted optical signals.
DOI
10.1364/quantum.2022.qtu2a.34

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Distributing quantum information between remote systems will necessitate the integration of emerging quantum components with existing communication infrastructure. This requires understanding the channel-induced degradations of the transmitted quantum signals, beyond the typical characterization methods for classical communication systems. Here we report on a comprehensive characterization of a Boston-Area Quantum Network (BARQNET) telecom fiber testbed, measuring the time-of-flight, polarization, and phase noise imparted on transmitted signals. We further design and demonstrate a compensation system that is both resilient to these noise sources and compatible with integration of emerging quantum memory components on the deployed link. These results have utility for future work on the BARQNET as well as other quantum network testbeds in development, enabling near-term quantum networking demonstrations and informing what areas of technology development will be most impactful in advancing future system capabilities.
BBN has designed and built the world's first Quantum Network testbed, delivering end-to-end network security via high-speed Quantum Key Distribution (QKD), and testing that Network against sophisticated eavesdropping attacks. BBN has fielded this ultrahigh-security network into commercial fiber across the metro Boston area. BBN's QKD network comprises 10 nodes. It is both extremely secure and 100% compatible with today's Internet technology. Four of the 10 nodes are running 24x7 over Boston metro telecom fiber between BBN, BU and Harvard and protecting Internet traffic; four other nodes are free-space; and two are based on polarization entanglement through fiber. BBN also teamed with NIST & University of Rochester to build the first superconducting single-photon detector. It saw first light in 2005. We characterized our prototype detector at temperatures ranging from 2K to 4K and expect to operate a full detector suite in early 2006 at speed up to 100MHz (20x faster than any existing detector). BBN also collaborated with MIT to build the world's first experimental demonstration of Eve, a quantum eavesdropper. The results were published in Summer 2006.
Deploying quantum networks over existing network infrastructures requires the same engineering foundations that underpin classical communications: quantitative models of the channel's noise and of the impairments it imposes on the transmitted information. In this work, we build such a foundation on experimental measurements, grounding the quantum-network counterparts of the two cornerstone metrics of classical link characterization - namely, the SINR and the BER - on a 7.3 km deployed metropolitan-scale fiber-loop interconnecting two campuses of the University of Naples Federico II within the national QuantumInternet.it testbed. On the noise side, we adopt a photon-counting quantum analog of the SINR - in which dark counts constitute the intrinsic noise and the photons generated by classical traffic (through either spontaneous Raman scattering or inter-fiber crosstalk) constitute the interference - and we quantify each contribution directly on the deployed loop. On the bit-error side, we consider the main degrees-of-freedom available to encode a quantum state within an optical photon - namely, polarization, time, and frequency - and we quantify for each degree the channel-induced degradation and its drift over time. These results show that a quantum fiber link, like its classical counterpart, can be captured by a small set of measurable parameters, turning quantum networking over deployed fiber from a physics demonstration into an engineering design problem. Together, they provide the key ingredients of a quantum link budget for the Quantum Internet.