Optical Quantum Communication Protocols

光量子通信协议

• 批准号: RGPIN-2017-04482
• 负责人: Lutkenhaus, Norbert
• 金额: $ 2.62万
• 依托单位: University of Waterloo
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=710468
• 关键词: Optical; Quantum; Communication; Protocols

Quantum communication offers unprecedented abilities over what we can today with classical communication. Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle allows creating secret keys between two distant parties without computational assumption about eavesdroppers along the connecting line, simply because any attempt by an adversary to look at the signal will disturb it. In quantum information, classical bits are being replaced by qubits, which cannot only take values zero or one, but a continuum of states in-between. That helps, for example, in comparing large files or schedule appointments as one can encode many more different messages into a smaller number of quantum signals. The generation of secret key using quantum key distribution is a maturing field with first commercial applications. However, we need to make it work faster to keep up with the increasing communication rates of modern optical communication. For this, we need to find better ways to deal with signal loss in optical fibers as we cannot use traditional signal amplification, as is done in classical optical communication. Such amplification will disturb the signal exactly like an eavesdropper would do. Quantum mechanics offers in principle alternative methods, called quantum repeaters. They have not been demonstrated yet as the known schemes involve very fragile systems and operations. Our research will develop more robust and practical methods. The quantitative advantage of quantum communication over classical communication is known since two decades, but until recently, it was not known how to practically implement the protocols to realize that advantage. Recently, we proposed and demonstrated optical protocols to realize the advantage in comparing data files. We will now work to expand the achievable tasks to include quantum-efficient scheduling of appointments in a group of users. This progress is not only important in saving communication costs in networks, but the protocols we propose also leak less information about the compared files or calendar entries to the communication parties. This fits well into the paradigm of Privacy by Design put forward the Ontario Privacy Commissioner. In our research, not only do we expand the range of tasks that we can realize in our modern optical communication networks, we also train people who are familiar with these extended capabilities and can carry their knowledge into Canada's communication industry.

量子通信提供了前所未有的能力，超过了我们今天使用经典通信所能提供的能力。海森伯格的不确定性原理允许在两个相距较远的各方之间创建密钥，而不需要计算连接线路上的窃听者，因为对手试图查看信号会干扰信号。在量子信息中，经典比特正在被量子比特取代，量子比特不仅取值0或1，还取值介于两者之间的一系列状态。例如，这有助于比较大文件或日程安排，因为人们可以将更多不同的消息编码为更少数量的量子信号。 利用量子密钥分配产生密钥是一个成熟的领域，具有第一批商业应用。然而，我们需要让它工作得更快，以跟上现代光通信不断增长的通信速率。为此，我们需要找到更好的方法来处理光纤中的信号损失，因为我们不能像在经典的光通信中那样使用传统的信号放大。这种放大会干扰信号，就像窃听者会做的那样。量子力学原则上提供了另一种方法，称为量子中继器。它们尚未得到证明，因为已知的计划涉及非常脆弱的系统和业务。我们的研究将开发出更稳健和实用的方法。 量子通信相对于经典通信的数量优势早在20年前就已为人所知，但直到最近，人们才知道如何实际实现这些协议来实现这一优势。最近，我们提出并演示了光学协议，以实现数据文件比较的优势。我们现在将努力扩大可实现的任务，将量子效率的预约安排包括在一组用户中。这一进展不仅对节省网络中的通信成本很重要，而且我们提出的协议也减少了向通信方泄露有关所比较的文件或日历条目的信息。这与安大略省隐私专员提出的隐私设计范式非常吻合。 在我们的研究中，我们不仅扩大了我们在现代光通信网络中可以实现的任务范围，还培训了熟悉这些扩展能力并能够将他们的知识带入加拿大通信行业的人员。