Amazon has announced a new AWS Center for Quantum Networking (CQN). The announcement says the center has a mission to address the fundamental scientific and engineering challenges of quantum networking and to develop new hardware, software, and applications for quantum networks.

Amazon say CQN will complement the quantum science and engineering efforts already underway at the AWS Center for Quantum Computing and the Amazon Quantum Solutions Lab. Amazon recently announced that AWS is joining Q-NEXT, the quantum research center led by the US Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory.

Announcing the new lab, Denis Sukachev and Mihir Bhaskar, quantum research scientists at the AWS Center for Quantum Networking, said quantum computers have evolved from delicate laboratory systems accessible to only a few research institutions to increasingly reliable and powerful commercial machines available to researchers, developers, and even quantum enthusiasts worldwide via cloud services like Amazon Braket.

However, they said that to unlock the full potential of quantum devices, they need to be connected together into a quantum network, similar to the way today’s devices are connected via the internet.

What Amazon means by a quantum network is a combination of some technologies already deployed for modern optical communications, such as lasers, fibers, and detectors. However, instead of laser beams, quantum networks will use single photons to connect quantum devices together.

This isn't that straightforward, because quantum mechanics prohibits the amplification of single protons so limits the network range, and it's not clear how they'll be interfaced with current quantum computing devices. This means that special new technologies, such as quantum repeaters and transducers, will need to be developed.

Amazon says that if such problems can be solved, quantum networks have fascinating possible applications, such as the use of quantum key distribution to protect global communications.

More Information

AWS Center for Quantum Computing

Amazon Quantum Solutions Lab

Related Articles

Amazon Braket Now Generally Available

Amazon Braket On The Quantum Bandwagon

Google Takes On Quantum Computing

Google Announces 72-Qubit Machine

Proof Of Quantum Supremacy?

Minecraft Goes Quantum       

The Theoretical Minimum       

To be informed about new articles on I Programmer, sign up for our weekly newsletter, subscribe to the RSS feed and follow us on Twitter, Facebook or Linkedin.

Comments

Make a Comment or View Existing Comments Using Disqus

or email your comment to: comments@i-programmer.info