Quantum Networks: A Classical Perspective
Abstract:
Quantum information processing is at the threshold of having significant impact on technology and society in the form of providing unbreakable security, ultra-high-precision distributed sensing, and polynomial/exponential speed-ups in computing. Many of these applications are enabled by high rate distributed shared entanglement between pairs and groups of users. A critical missing component that prevents crossing this threshold is a distributed infrastructure in the form of a world-wide “Quantum Internet”. This motivates the study of quantum networks, namely, to identify the right architecture and how should it operate, e.g., dynamic fair allocation of resources. Moreover, the architecture and network operation must account for operation in harsh, noisy environments.
This talk addresses the following question: what ideas can the design of a quantum network borrow from classical networks? At first glance the answer appears to be “very little”. The focus of this talk, however, is to argue that the opposite is true and that much can be borrowed from classical networks. We begin by reviewing two proposed quantum network architectures two-way and one-way architectures. A two-way network generates and distributes quantum entanglement to pairs or groups of users whereas a one-way network allows for direct transfer of quantum information from one user to another. We compare these architectures and conclude that a two-way architecture is superior. A two-way architecture appears very different from the classical Internet architecture. However, we will introduce a “connectionless” two-way quantum network architecture that allows one to easily adapt many ideas from classical networks (good and bad ). We provide several examples of the adoption of good ideas and conclude with open research questions.
Bio:
Don Towsley holds a B.A. in Physics (1971) and a Ph.D. in Computer Science (1975) from University of Texas. He is currently a Distinguished Professor at the University of Massachusetts in the College of Information & Computer Sciences. His research interests include quantum communications and quantum networks.
He is a co-founder ACM Transactions on Modeling and Performance Evaluation of Computing Systems (ToMPECS) and served as one of its first co-Editor in Chiefs. He has also served as Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking and on numerous other editorial boards. He has served as Program Co-chair for numerous conferences and on the program committees of many others.
He is a corresponding member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and has received numerous awards including the 2007 IEEE Koji Kobayashi Award, 2007 ACM SIGMETRICS Achievement Award, 2008 ACM SIGCOMM Achievement Award, and the 2023 Network Science Society Euler Award. He has also received numerous best paper awards including the IEEE Communications Society 1998 William Bennett Paper Award, a 2008 ACM SIGCOMM Test of Time Award, a 2018 ACM MOBICOM Test of Time award, the 2012 ACM SIGMETRICS Test of Time Award, and two IEEE QCE best paper awards. Last, he is Fellow of both the ACM and IEEE.
