Wireless Communication Based on Microwave Photon-Level Detection With Superconducting Devices: Achievable Rate Prediction

TL;DR

This paper explores high-sensitivity microwave photon-level detection using superconducting devices for future wireless communication, predicting increased receiver sensitivity over traditional systems with a gain exceeding 10dB.

Contribution

It introduces superconducting microwave photon detection methods and predicts their impact on achievable communication rates, advancing physical-layer signal detection technology.

Findings

Microwave photon detection can improve receiver sensitivity by over 10dB.

Channel modeling with superconducting detection approaches predicts higher achievable rates.

Superconducting devices enable photon-level detection in microwave communication systems.

Abstract

Future wireless communication system embraces physical-layer signal detection with high sensitivity, especially in the microwave photon level. Currently, the receiver primarily adopts the signal detection based on semi-conductor devices for signal detection, while this paper introduces high-sensitivity photon-level microwave detection based on superconducting structure. We first overview existing works on the photon-level communication in the optical spectrum as well as the microwave photon-level sensing based on superconducting structure in both theoretical and experimental perspectives, including microwave detection circuit model based on Josephson junction, microwave photon counter based on Josephson junction, and two reconstruction approaches under background noise. In addition, we characterize channel modeling based on two different microwave photon detection approaches, including the absorption barrier and the dual-path Handury Brown-Twiss (HBT) experiments, and predict the corresponding achievable rates. According to the performance prediction, it is seen that the microwave photon-level signal detection can increase the receiver sensitivity compared with the state-of-the-art standardized communication system with waveform signal reception, with gain over $10$dB.