Two commercial telecommunications facilities were connected by a safe quantum network that used fiber optic cables at room temperature – it is a crucial step for a future viable quantum internet.
Another important step towards a Quantum internet.
Best of all, it does not require any special communication equipment.
On the fringes of a study this Wednesday in Naturetwo data centers in Germany exchanged Safe quantum information using existing telecommunications fibers at room temperature.
This contrasted with most quantum communicationswhich often require cooling at extremely low temperatures to protect quantum particles from disturbance in the environment.
As the Quantum Internet writes, where information can be changed with extreme security thanks to coding in quantum light particles called photons, it is quickly making raids around the world outside the laboratory.
In March, a microsatellite hit the, allowing a quantum connection between land stations in China and South Africa.
A few weeks earlier, the quantum communication networks was presented.
Now, a team from Toshiba Europe Limited managed to send quantum information through fiber optics between two installations separated by about 250 kilometers in Kehl and Frankfurt, Germany.
The information also went through a third station among them, just over 150 kilometers from Frankfurt.
In a remarkable improvement compared to previous quantum networks, the team used existing fiber, as well as devices that can be easily fitted to racks that already house traditional telecommunications equipment. This reinforces the possibility of the quantum internet eventually becomes a plug-and-play operation.
Prem Kumarfrom the Northwestern University in Illinois, told New Scientist that the use of this type of communication protocol underlines how quantum networks are to approach the practicality.
“A systems engineer could look at it and see that it works. However, to be totally practical, the network would have to exchange information faster,” he said.
