No Arabic abstract
Quantum network coding is an effective solution for alleviating bottlenecks in quantum networks. We introduce a measurement-based quantum network coding scheme for quantum repeater networks (MQNC), and analyze its behavior based on results acquired from Monte-Carlo simulation that includes various error sources over a butterfly network. By exploiting measurement-based quantum computing, operation on qubits for completing network coding proceeds in parallel. We show that such an approach offers advantages over other schemes in terms of the quantum circuit depth, and therefore improves the communication fidelity without disturbing the aggregate throughput. The circuit depth of our protocol has been reduced by 56.5% compared to the quantum network coding scheme (QNC) introduced in 2012 by Satoh, et al. For MQNC, we have found that the resulting entangled pairs joint fidelity drops below 50% when the accuracy of local operations is lower than 98.9%, assuming that all initial Bell pairs across quantum repeaters have a fixed fidelity of 98%. Overall, MQNC showed substantially higher error tolerance compared to QNC and slightly better than buffer space multiplexing using step-by-step entanglement swapping, but not quite as strong as simultaneous entanglement swapping operations.
Quantum repeater networks have attracted attention for the implementation of long-distance and large-scale sharing of quantum states. Recently, researchers extended classical network coding, which is a technique for throughput enhancement, into quantum information. The utility of quantum network coding (QNC) has been shown under ideal conditions, but it has not been studied previously under conditions of noise and shortage of quantum resources. We analyzed QNC on a butterfly network, which can create end-to-end Bell pairs at twice the rate of the standard quantum network repeater approach. The joint fidelity of creating two Bell pairs has a small penalty for QNC relative to entanglement swapping. It will thus be useful when we care more about throughput than fidelity. We found that the output fidelity drops below 0.5 when the initial Bell pairs have fidelity F < 0.90, even with perfect local gates. Local gate errors have a larger impact on quantum network coding than on entanglement swapping.
Quantum network coding has been proposed to improve resource utilization to support distributed computation but has not yet been put in to practice. We investigate a particular implementation of quantum network coding using measurement-based quantum computation on IBM Q processors. We compare the performance of quantum network coding with entanglement swapping and entanglement distribution via linear cluster states. These protocols outperform quantum network coding in terms of the final Bell pair fidelities but are unsuitable for optimal resource utilization in complex networks with contention present. We demonstrate the suitability of noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) devices such as IBM Q for the study of quantum networks. We also identify the factors that limit the performance of quantum network coding on these processors and provide estimates or error rates required to boost the final Bell pair fidelities to a point where they can be used for generation of genuinely random cryptographic keys among other useful tasks. Surprisingly, the required error rates are only around a factor of 2 smaller than the current status and we expect they will be achieved in the near future.
We analyze how the performance of a quantum-repeater network depends on the protocol employed to distribute entanglement, and we find that the choice of repeater-to-repeater link protocol has a profound impact on communication rate as a function of hardware parameters. We develop numerical simulations of quantum networks using different protocols, where the repeater hardware is modeled in terms of key performance parameters, such as photon generation rate and collection efficiency. These parameters are motivated by recent experimental demonstrations in quantum dots, trapped ions, and nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond. We find that a quantum-dot repeater with the newest protocol (MidpointSource) delivers the highest communication rate when there is low probability of establishing entanglement per transmission, and in some cases the rate is orders of magnitude higher than other schemes. Our simulation tools can be used to evaluate communication protocols as part of designing a large-scale quantum network.
Quantum key distribution (QKD) is one of the most important subjects in quantum information theory. There are two kinds of QKD protocols, prepare-measure protocols and entanglement-based protocols. For long-distance communications in noisy environments, entanglement-based protocols might be more reliable since they could be assisted with distillation procedures to prevent from noises. In this paper, we study the entanglement-based QKD over certain noisy channels and present schemes against collective noises, including collective dephasing and collective rotation, Pauli noises, amplitude damping noises, phase damping noises and mixtures of them. We focus on how to implement QKD protocols over noisy channels as in noiseless ones without errors. We also analyze the efficiency of the schemes, demonstrating that they could be more efficient than the standard entanglement-based QKD scheme.
Quantum networks will support long-distance quantum key distribution (QKD) and distributed quantum computation, and are an active area of both experimental and theoretical research. Here, we present an analysis of topologically complex networks of quantum repeaters composed of heterogeneous links. Quantum networks have fundamental behavioral differences from classical networks; the delicacy of quantum states makes a practical path selection algorithm imperative, but classical notions of resource utilization are not directly applicable, rendering known path selection mechanisms inadequate. To adapt Dijkstras algorithm for quantum repeater networks that generate entangled Bell pairs, we quantify the key differences and define a link cost metric, seconds per Bell pair of a particular fidelity, where a single Bell pair is the resource consumed to perform one quantum teleportation. Simulations that include both the physical interactions and the extensive classical messaging confirm that Dijkstras algorithm works well in a quantum context. Simulating about three hundred heterogeneous paths, comparing our path cost and the total work along the path gives a coefficient of determination of 0.88 or better.