Quantum Communication

Philip Obinakwelu
Department of telecommunication science
University of Ilorin
Ilorin, Nigeria
Philip@gmail.com
Abstract—Quantum communication is an evolutionary Physics. One might say that the laser, superconductivity,
concept in field of telecommunication. It involves using semiconductors, and more, are all technologies that are
quantum computing to achieve complex communication. It based on quantum physics. However, the distinction with
majorly involves a linear chain of repeater stations, each quantum communication and more generally quantum
capable of reliable local quantum computation and information science and technology is that it takes
connected to their nearest neighbors by unreliable advantage of quantum physics at the level of individual
communication links [1]. quanta [2].
As we’ve inched closer and closer to quantum
Keywords—quantum, communication, cryptography, computing, quantum cryptography has become a greater Commented [Mr.5]: This is telecoms 300lvl, I don’t think its
security concern. We haven’t yet created a quantum computer necessary to define cryptography.
that’s faster than the binary computers we use today, Commented [Mr.6R5]:
I. INTRODUCTION but it’s possible that this will change within a few years.
While this opens up a lot of possibilities, quantum
Quantum communication is a concept based on a set of computers will likely be able to break many current
diverse technologies and concepts, it is driven by encryption protocols. [5].
interrelation of fields of study like, theoretical computer
In classical computing, data is stored in bits. These bits can
science, telecom engineering, theoretical physics,
exist in one of two states – 1s or 0s; off or on. Quantum
mechanical and electronic engineering which are required
computing, on the other hand, uses “qubits” (quantum bits).
to achieve effective quantum communication. The first
Unlike bits, qubits can store more information than just a 1
generations of the achievement of quantum are trends on
or 0. They do this because they exploit unique features and
the market, and laboratories in universities are currently
can thus exist in 1, 0 or a superposition of these values
working on advanced quantum networks, but this concept
allowing a qubit to be in both states at the same time!
is more capable than what we’ve seen so far. Quantum
communication and quantum information science and A detailed explanation would get us mired in quantum
technologies in its totality has being around for long and is mechanics which even Einstein called “spooky.” For our
now becoming a center of focus in this 21st century [2]. purpose, imagine a sphere where in the classical state, the
1 and 0 are at the poles. A qubit, on the other hand, can be
II. LITERATURE REVIEW on any point on the sphere, thus making a quantum
Review the work of some of your reference materials computer much more powerful.
following the IEEE literature review format. Quantum And, because qubits can be in multiple states at once, Commented [Mr.1]: That is exactly what I’ve done here.
communication is the art of transferring a quantum state they exhibit inherent parallelism. That means while your
from one place to another. Traditionally, the sender is current computer can work on one thing at a time, quantum Commented [Mr.2R1]:
named Alice and the receiver Bob. The basic motivation is computers can work on millions of things all at the same
that quantum states code quantum information - called time [6].
qubits in the case of 2-dimensional Hilbert spaces - and
that quantum information allows one to perform tasks that
could only be achieved far less efficiently, if at all, using
classical information [9].

III. GETTING DEEPER

First what is quantum communication before
discussing the concept of it in telecommunication. The
main concept of quantum communication is to turn the
strange parts of quantum physics to an advantage, for
instance, the superposition principle, the uncertainty
relation, and randomness. Take note of the concepts of its
revolution: instead of turning away from quantum
uniqueness and trying to avoid their negative side-effects
for standard technologies, the objective of the new
generation of quantum engineers is to exploit the new
physics. To be precise, they totally accept quantum physics
as it is and want to find real uses for its most counter-
intuitive values. It is, disappointing and surprising that it
took sixty or seventy years before realizing that new
technologies can be achieved with this new area of
Commented [Mr.3]: Done that in the introduction, I’m not that
dumb na.
Commented [Mr.4R3]:
Fig. 1. An example of quantum communication.
A. QRNG(Quantum Random Number Generator)
The most advanced applications of quantum
communication are clearly QRNG (Quantum Random
Number Generator) and QKD (Quantum Key
Distribution). The first was initially developed as a
component of the second. It was originally thought that
would also find applications in classical cryptography and
in Monte-Carlo numerical simulations. QRNG did find
some application in classical cryptography (e.g. the state of
Geneva uses QRNG to produce the pin-codes used for
internet voting), but by far the largest application came as a
surprise: internet gambling for which it has now been
certified by Metas. This is a good example of the
application of QRNG, which is hard to predict that
applications of new technologies are hard to predict
(physicists are especially bad at predicting good
commercial applications!) [2].
QRNG development is a timely topic, but any approach
should concentrate on three key requirements:
 Origin of randomness easily identifiable. One
should be able to quantify how much
randomness is truly quantum and how much is
”technological noise”, e.g. thermal noise,
detector noise, etc.
 Reliability, size and price. There is no
fundamental reason for a QRNG not to be as
small and cheap as a standard electronic chip.
 Fast, in particular faster than classical,
physical, RNG. The minimal rate of future
QRNG should be in the range of hundreds of
Mbps to Gbps.
B. QKD(Quantum Key Distribution)
Present QKD systems are mostly based on the
historical BB84 protocol which is the first quantum
cryptography protocol, majorly to communicate private-
keys securely (with some improvements like SARG and
Decoy-state). However, better protocols have been
invented in the context of fiber networks. It should be
understood that BB84 originally was described using
polarization encoding, which is intuitively easy to
understand, though in practice most real systems use some
type of phase encoding that is more compatible with fiber
optical systems. Despite these advances, the best QKD
protocols have probably not yet been discovered. In any
case, the protocol should use telecom photons (i.e. around
1550 nm), which will be compatible with standard optical
fiber networks and combine them with the necessary
quantum features to guarantee “quantum security”. This
requires synergy between telecom engineers and quantum
theorists [2].
IV. TYPICAL QKD SETUP
In a typical QKD set-up, the photons are generated by a
single photon source, encoded into binary values (i.e.,
representing "0" and "1") and then transmitted to the
receiver either via optical fibers or in free space. The
receiver then decodes the state of photons and detects them
using single photon sensitive detectors and time-tagging
electronics. There are several methods for encoding and
decoding the photons:
 via polarization: the binary information "1" or "0" is
defined by the polarization of the single photons, e.g.,
binary "0" correlates with the horizontally polarized
photon and binary "1" with vertically polarized photon
 via the phase, which requires the use of a
interferometer system: the phase difference Δφ = Alice
- φBob of the two interferometers is then used for
encoding the binary values, e.g., a phase difference
Δφ=0 correlates with the binary "0" and the phase
difference Δφ=π correlates with the binary "1"
 Via entangled photons, which requires one sender of
entangled photon pairs and two receivers (Alice and
Bob) each equipped with a polarizer. Alice and Bob set
the two angles at their respective polarization rotator
randomly. If the angles of Alice and Bob match, both
photons behave exactly the same at the beam splitter,
i.e., they are either transmitted (binary "1") or reflected
(binary "0") [7].
V. QUANTUM INFORMATION PROCESSING
Quantum Information Processing focuses on
information processing and computing based on quantum
mechanics. While current digital computers encode data in
binary digits (bits), quantum computers aren't limited to
two states. They encode information as quantum bits, or
qubits, which can exist in superposition. Qubits can be
implemented with atoms, ions, photons or electrons and
suitable control devices that work together to act as
computer memory and a processor. Because a quantum
computer can contain these multiple states simultaneously,
they provide an inherent parallelism. This will enable them
to solve certain problems much faster than any classical
computer using the best currently known algorithms, like
integer factorization or the simulation of quantum many-
body systems. Right now the quantum computer is still in
its infancy. First steps on that road are the simplest
building blocks such as quantum logic gates and memory
based on genuine quantum effects such as superposition
and entanglement [7].
TABLE I. SUMMARY OF QUANTUM COMMUNICATION PROTOCOLS
FOR SPACE COMMUNICATIONS AND SPACE APPLICATIONS [8].
Benefits State application
Unconditional Security(Detection of Secure satellite-to-
eavesdropper). satellite
communication.
Transfer of quantum information without Quantum
disturbing the quantum information. telecomputation for
deep space missions.
ADVANTAGES OF QUANTUM COMMUNICATION
 The main advantage of quantum computing is it
can execute any task very faster when compared to
the classical computer, generally the atoms
changes very faster in case of the traditional
computing whereas in quantum computing it
changes even more faster. But all the tasks can’t be
done better by quantum computing when
compared to traditional computer.
 In quantum computing qubit is the conventional
superposition state and so there is an advantage of
exponential speedup which is resulted by handle
number of calculations.
 The other advantage of quantum computing is that
classical algorithm calculations are also performed
easily which is similar to the classical computer
[3].
DISADVANTAGES OF QUANTUM COMMUNICATION
The technology needed to build a quantum computer is
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