When Entanglement meets Classical Communications: Quantum Teleportation for the Quantum Internet (Invited Paper)

TL;DR

This paper explains the role of quantum entanglement in quantum teleportation, highlighting its importance for the development of the Quantum Internet and addressing the unique challenges posed by quantum noise and protocol design.

Contribution

It clarifies the fundamental differences between classical and quantum communication, emphasizing the redesign of communication models for quantum teleportation and discussing practical challenges.

Findings

Quantum teleportation enables qubit transmission without physical transfer.

Quantum decoherence significantly impacts quantum communication protocols.

Understanding entanglement is crucial for building the Quantum Internet.

Abstract

Quantum Teleportation is the key communication functionality of the Quantum Internet, allowing the "transmission' of qubits without either the physical transfer of the particle storing the qubit or the violation of the quantum mechanical principles. Quantum teleportation is facilitated by the action of quantum entanglement, a somewhat counter-intuitive physical phenomenon with no direct counterpart in the classical word. As a consequence, the very concept of the classical communication system model has to be redesigned to account for the peculiarities of quantum teleportation. This re-design is a crucial prerequisite for constructing any effective quantum communication protocol. The aim of this manuscript is to shed light on this key concept, with the objective of allowing the reader: i) to appreciate the fundamental differences between the transmission of classical information versus the teleportation of quantum information; ii) to understand the communications functionalities underlying quantum teleportation, and to grasp the challenges in the design and practical employment of these functionalities; iii) to acknowledge that quantum information is subject to the deleterious effects of a noise process termed as quantum decoherence. This impairment has no direct counterpart in the classical world; iv) to recognize how to contribute to the design and employment of the Quantum Internet.