The Quantum Internet of Anything

July 19, 2016

From the Tech Corner

By Ernest Worthman

Executive Editor
AGL Small Cell Magazine

July 21, 2016 — Unequivocal security, unlimited devices, potentially unlimited distances, and unimpeded paths make quantum communications for next generation wireless networks the next big thing.

In the next few years wireless communication nets will proliferate at a rate unimagined only a few short years ago. With the Internet of Anything (IoX), the cloud, 5G, and whatever else comes down the pike, the number of wireless access points (APs) will be in 10’s if not 100’s of billions. And the top concern for these APs is security.

Present day security is mostly a game of catch-up, the malevolents create havoc, the good guys respond with a patch. The next day, it starts all over again. Wouldn’t it be nice if the good guys were in the lead for a change?

Well, with quantum communications, (QC) that is possible. The principle of (QC) is that it can transfer a quantum state between locations. And that quantum state is uniquely singular in its existence. The significance of that cannot be overstated. This is what we can look to for the delivery of the super-secure communications networks of the future.
This kind of secure communications is made to order for the emerging Internet of anything (IoX, and, of course, so many other platforms). No matter how simple or complex the IoX object is, it can be secured with a quantum key. And, the nice thing is that the key doesn’t have to be uber-secure. The fact that any quantum relationship reveals that is has been observed means that even a simple two-bit key is workable for some applications. I am willing to bet that most of us don’t really care what simple data a smart sock contains. But we do care if it is compromised and acts as a conduit to critical data.

So by putting quantum keys on everything out there, probably the single most fearsome threat in the universe has been rendered moot – simple in theory, not so much in practice. We are a long way from deploying even the most basic of quantum cryptography in a ubiquitous fashion, but the theory is sound and discussions around it are exciting – and it will happen.

Why QC?

What is so exciting about QC is that it removes the ability for a hacker to eavesdrop on a system and obtain the “secret” key that secures the communications. No matter how complex or convoluted the key is made, given enough resources, it can be compromised. QC eliminates that issue by what is called quantum key distribution (QKD). QKD security is created when random data is encoding on individual photons quantum state. Then, these photons are transmitted over a quantum channel.

It works like this: let’s say a hacker tries to take a measurement on a qubit that is in a particular state of superposition. When that attempt is made, the quantum system will be altered, and changed, or reduced to one of the two possible states, by the hacker’s detector. This disruption to the original state will show up as up as an increase in the quantum channel bit error rate (BER), and alert the user that there is a presence on the quantum channel.

While many of the readers are likely aware of the principles around quantum theory (or mechanics/physics), before we delve into how this works, it might be in order to present a brief discussion on the principles of quantum physics that makes QKD possible.

Quantum theory 101

There are two fundamental quantum theory principles. One is the wave-particle duality theory that present the concept that quanta exhibit both wave- and particle-like behaviors. Wave-like behaviors are those such as refraction, particle-like behaviors include such concepts as particles cannot be in two places at once, and they cannot share space with another particle. The duality principle is often debated as to its validity, and is said to exist only when certain things occur i.e. a quanta observed, a wave function collapses, or two quanta interact. But this is just mentioned here in passing.

However, the second principle, the uncertainty principle, is much more valid, and relative to communications. It states that any attempt to measure any attribute; velocity, position, spin, etc. will affect a change other attributes. It also involves superposition (the existence of certain relations among states), and observer status. The status of the observer (observation will cause the wave function to collapse to a specific state).

As it turns out, the uncertainty principle is exactly what the doctor ordered for quantum communication security. In a nutshell, if there is any kind of action upon the QK, it changes the quantum state that the photons that are placed in, that characterized the cryptographic key. Examples of that are attempts to intercept, or view the key. If either is attempted there is an altering the quantum state, which immediately points to a security breach and renders the key useless.

Quantum Communications 101

QC uses quantum physics’ entanglement and other nonlocal characteristics to transfer the quantum state of photons from one location to another. While quantum theory may be the pièce de résistance of secure communications, it is far from being ready for prime time. And, at the present time, the only success has been with photons (vs. atoms or ions), and in the lab, or other experimental environments. While it seems simple, in theory; sending photons as a one or zero and if it is disturbed, its state is altered, there is so much more to making that actually happen.

The biggest challenge in photon-based schemes is the fact that photons disappear in the quantum channel. If the medium is fiber, they get absorbed or get scattered. In a free space medium (lasers), there is no birefringence so the distance is greater, but the photons are still subject to intense backlight, diffusion and absorption, atmospheric turbulence, and decoherence. So until these issues are overcome, space-based quantum communications remain on the test bed.

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t successes. They process has been proven to work. As far back as the late 2000s, some success has been achieved in setting up quantum channels. These experiments have shown that cryptographic keys can be distributing over tens of kilometers, maintaining quantum entanglement, and the observation properties required for secure communications. So we know we can do it. Tens of km is now, tens of thousands is the sweet spot (the top goal is to hit the geostationary satellites just under 36,000 km).

But with respect to the IoX, there is a lot of application for short hops between one and ten km and that is one of the areas of heavy development QC. There is also the other end of the spectrum, thousands of km for reaching satellites, but that is a lot further off. The current record is just over 144 km [1], which is already several years old, so that gives one an idea of how difficult achieving the next level is.

Drilling Down on Challenges

Quantum physics has the unique capability to deliver, from one point to another, strictly correlated strings of bits. These strings come with the explicit assurance that there is no copy of these bits exist anywhere else in the universe. That is by the laws of nature, and does not rely on mathematical assumptions. Thusly, this is the perfect storm – two strings of correlated bits, can offer unequivocally secure keys with 100 percent guarantee the keys cannot be leaked.

But, to get this ready for prime time means overcome some huge challenges. One of which is isolation of the propagation channel. If quantum objects interact with the environment, they lose their “quantumness,” and revert back to becoming a classical object.

For the long hops, the earth’s atmosphere will absorb a most of the photons transmitted from the ground. The further the distance, the more absorption occurs. That is scalable on terrestrial hops as well but since the distances are so much shorter, it is easier to get past the knee of absorption.

One experiment, that was done to see if longer distances can be achieved, used the theory that each pulse will have a precise number of photons. This number would be such that, on average, only a single photon would reach the satellite and be reflected back to Earth. However, the gotcha is “on average.” To make this reliable would mean that a methodology would have to be devised to make the reliability much higher. Not just N number of pluses, and catch a single photon every now and the. Still, it proved that it can be done.

Another challenge is distance. Not just from the earth to a satellite, but from point to point on earth. This can be overcome with the use of repeaters, and free-space optics (FSO) over which the entanglement can be teleported. While this might be practical for terrestrial links, it would be more difficult space-based distances since it would be difficult to have repeaters out there in orbit somewhere. So work on that is going on, terrestrially.

How it Might Work

Optical fibers and free space are the two media through which photons can propagate. For optical fiber, the frequencies are 1300 and 1550 nm, for free space the most desired are 800 nm or longer wavelengths from 4 to 10 microns (4000 to 10000 nm).

One particular experiment used a pair of telescopes set up in a binocular fashion. They were pointed at an orbiting satellite about 400 km out. In this particular case a satellite was chosen that could bounce a laser beam back to earth, to its original positon. Then, one telescope was used to shoot a pulse at the satellite the second one was used to observe the reflection.

Simple in theory, but as was discussed earlier, it turns out the majority of the pulses are lost. Here, each pulse was beamed out with about a billion photons and only one, if any, started the return journey. Not only are most of the photons lost leaving the earth, but reciprocally, just as many would be lost on atmospheric re-entry.

So the ensuing work turns up some inserting metrics. It seems that it takes several billion pulses per second to get a respectable return. According to Jian-Wei and Co., one of the experimenters, it takes that many outgoing pulses to get about 600 returning photons per second. And, says Wei, “These results are sufﬁcient to set up an unconditionally secure QKD link between satellite and earth, technically. However, this is all still on paper and nothing has been actually developed to support these results.

The importance of the long range communications is related mostly to cloud networks, backhaul and global communications. If QC is achieved for terrestrial hops, without long range, space-based QC, the threat environment just moves to another set of channels.

The Relationship between QC and Entanglement

One of the most interesting phenomenon is entanglement and how it enables QKD. Quantum entanglement is a physical phenomenon that says that if certain generated groups or pairs of particles, are bound in such a way that the individual particles cannot be described independently. The only way to describe them is to give them what is called a “quantum state” that describes the makeup of the systems or groups/pairs of, in this case, photons. The various properties of entangled particles – spin, momentum, polarization, position, etc. are expressly correlated with each of the individual particle.

For example, say a pair of photons are entangled in such a way that one of the properties, spin, for example, is known to be zero. That means that they are axial opposites, i.e., if the spin of one of the particles is clockwise, the other must be counterclockwise.

In QKD, such a system can be used to define a bit within a cryptograph key. This process is simply repeated for however many bits are desired. And, as was discussed earlier, any attempt to view this entanglement will “act” upon the particle and collapse the state. Viola! Unbreakable cryptography.

Missive

As was noted by Bruce Potter, CTO of the KEYW Corporation, “quantum cryptology (and its crypto components) is a mind-bending concept that baffles even the most experienced scientists. Those who try to understand what’s going on are stymied by the diversity, age and code complexity of the various software components. And, while cryptographic core algorithms have been well-studied, other components in enterprise cryptosystems are less understood. It’s no wonder this field of science incites so much controversy.”

What else holds so much promise and excitement as quantum anything? It has the potential to revolutionize and secure communications, and that is only a small vector.

In the future it will be possible to send totally secure, hack-proof messages around the planet. This has tremendous implications for governments, the military, commercial organizations such as bank,s and, the next great enabler, the IoX. And, such communications can be totally independent of the Internet.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Researchers in quantum entanglements are looking at elements such at time and energy as entanglement options as well as polarization.

What all this will look like 10 years from now is hard to predict. But I think once we get it off the test beds and get some real-world working applications, the sky will be the limit and I can freely give out my credit card data.

R. Ursin, F. Tiefenbacher, T. Schmitt-Manderbach, H. Weier, T. Scheidl, M. Lindenthal, B. Blauensteiner, T. Jennewein, J. Perdigues, P. Trojek, B. Oemer, M. Fuerst, M. Meyenburg, J. Rarity, Z. Sodnik, C. Barbieri, H. Weinfurter, A. Zeilinger, Free-space distribution of entanglement