Quantum-enhanced Information Retrieval from Reflective Intelligent Surfaces

TL;DR

This paper introduces a quantum receiver that significantly improves data retrieval efficiency from passive reflective surfaces, surpassing classical limits and enabling longer communication distances with less energy.

Contribution

It presents a novel time-resolving quantum receiver with multi-mode probing that achieves quantum advantages without complex quantum resources, enhancing passive backscatter communication.

Findings

Surpasses classical standard quantum limit for modulation sizes up to 256.

Halves probing energy or extends communication distance by 41%.

Demonstrates quantum advantage in passive backscatter systems.

Abstract

Information retrieval from passive backscatter systems is widely used in digital applications with tight energy budgets, short communication distances, and low data rates. Due to the fundamental limits of classical wireless receivers, the achievable data rate cannot be increased without compromising either energy efficiency or communication range, thereby hindering the broader adoption of this technology. In this work, we present a novel time-resolving quantum receiver combined with a multi-mode probing signal to extract large-alphabet information modulated by a passive reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS). The adaptive nature of the proposed receiver yields significant quantum advantages over classical receivers without relying on complex or fragile quantum resources such as entanglement. Simulation results show that the proposed technique surpasses the classical standard quantum limit (SQL) for modulation sizes up to M = 2^8, meanwhile halving the probing energy or increasing the communication distance by a factor of 1.41.