A new more effective quantum communication network has been demonstrated in the UK city of Bristol using fibre optics. It was published just Wednesday in Science Advances under the title A trusted node–free eight-user metropolitan quantum communication network [1].
The invention, revealed in the journal Science Advances, has the potential to serve millions of users, is understood to be the largest-ever quantum network of its kind, and could be used to secure people's online communication, particularly in these internet-led times accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic [2].
The former method would need the number of users multiplied many times—in this case, for 8 users it would amount to having 56 receiver boxes [3]. As the user numbers grow, the logistics become increasingly unviable—for instance 100 users would take 9,900 receiver boxes (using the old method). However instead of making a physical connection, such as a glass fibre, between each and every user, the researchers created a scheme where every user only has a single glass fibre connected to a source of quantum entanglement [4]. To demonstrate its functionality across distance, the receiver boxes were connected to optical fibres via different locations across Bristol and the ability to transmit messages via quantum communication was tested using the city's existing optical fibre network.
Why should you care? This sort of research into quantum communication infrastructure paves the way towards a network of global satellite constellations delivering faster and more secure communications across cities, countries, and continents. And who doesn't want more a faster, cheaper, more secure, more reliable internet?
[4] Cosmos Magazine. (4th Sept 2020). Can entanglement make communication safer?
Written up for /r/lasercom
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