{"id":105497,"date":"2025-08-30T00:16:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T00:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/105497\/"},"modified":"2025-08-30T00:16:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T00:16:11","slug":"penn-engineers-send-quantum-signals-with-standard-internet-protocol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/105497\/","title":{"rendered":"Penn Engineers Send Quantum Signals with Standard Internet Protocol"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\"AYichi Zhang, a doctoral student in Materials Science and Engineering, inspects the source of the quantum signal. (Credit: Sylvia Zhang)<\/p>\n

In a first-of-its-kind experiment, engineers at the University of Pennsylvania brought quantum networking out of the lab and onto commercial fiber-optic cables using the same Internet Protocol (IP) that powers today\u2019s web. Reported in Science<\/a>, the work shows that fragile quantum signals can run on the same infrastructure that carries everyday online traffic. The team tested their approach on Verizon\u2019s campus fiber-optic network.<\/p>\n

The Penn team\u2019s tiny \u201cQ-chip\u201d coordinates quantum and classical data and, crucially, speaks the same language as the modern web. That approach could pave the way for a future \u201cquantum internet,\u201d which scientists believe may one day be as transformative as the dawn of the online era.<\/p>\n

\"TwoFrom left: Liang Feng, Professor in Materials Science and Engineering, and Robert Broberg, a doctoral student in Electrical and Systems Engineering. The wires behind them include a Verizon fiber optic cable that carried the quantum signal. (Credit: Sylvia Zhang)<\/p>\n

Quantum signals rely on pairs of \u201centangled\u201d particles, so closely linked that changing one instantly affects the other. Harnessing that property could allow quantum computers to link up and pool their processing power, enabling advances like faster, more energy-efficient AI or designing new drugs and materials beyond the reach of today\u2019s supercomputers.<\/p>\n

Penn\u2019s work shows, for the first time on live commercial fiber, that a chip can not only send quantum signals but also automatically correct for noise, bundle quantum and classical data into standard internet-style packets, and route them using the same addressing system and management tools that connect everyday devices online.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy showing an integrated chip can manage quantum signals on a live commercial network like Verizon\u2019s, and do so using the same protocols that run the classical internet, we\u2019ve taken a key step toward larger-scale experiments and a practical quantum internet,\u201d says Liang Feng<\/a>, professor in Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) and in Electrical and Systems Engineering (ESE), and the Science paper\u2019s senior author.<\/p>\n

The Challenges of Scaling the Quantum Internet<\/p>\n

Erwin Schrodinger, who coined the term \u201cquantum entanglement,\u201d famously related the concept to a cat hidden in a box. If the lid is closed, and the box also contains radioactive material, the cat could be alive or dead. One way to interpret the situation is that the cat is both alive and dead. Only opening the box confirms the cat\u2019s state.<\/p>\n

That paradox is roughly analogous to the unique nature of quantum particles. Once measured, they lose their unusual properties, which makes scaling a quantum network extremely difficult.<\/p>\n

\u201cNormal networks measure data to guide it towards the ultimate destination,\u201d says Robert Broberg<\/a>, a doctoral student in ESE and coauthor of the paper. \u201cWith purely quantum networks, you can\u2019t do that, because measuring the particles destroys the quantum state.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"APart of the equipment used to create a node of the quantum network, roughly one kilometer\u2019s worth of Verizon commercial fiber optic cable away from its source. (Credit: Sylvia Zhang)
\nCoordinating Classical and Quantum Signals<\/p>\n

To get around this obstacle, the team developed the \u201cQ-Chip\u201d (short for \u201cQuantum-Classical Hybrid Internet by Photonics\u201d) to coordinate \u201cclassical\u201d signals, made of regular streams of light, and quantum particles. \u201cThe classical signal travels just ahead of the quantum signal,\u201d says Yichi Zhang<\/a>, a doctoral student in MSE and the paper\u2019s first author. \u201cThat allows us to measure the classical signal for routing, while leaving the quantum signal intact.\u201d<\/p>\n

In essence, the new system works like a railway, pairing regular light locomotives with quantum cargo. \u201cThe classical \u2018header\u2019 acts like the train\u2019s engine, while the quantum information rides behind in sealed containers,\u201d says Zhang. \u201cYou can\u2019t open the containers without destroying what\u2019s inside, but the engine ensures the whole train gets where it needs to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because the classical header can be measured, the entire system can follow the same \u201cIP\u201d or \u201cInternet Protocol\u201d that governs today\u2019s internet traffic. \u201cBy embedding quantum information in the familiar IP framework, we showed that a quantum internet could literally speak the same language as the classical one,\u201d says Zhang. \u201cThat compatibility is key to scaling using existing infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adapting Quantum Technology to the Real World<\/p>\n

One of the greatest challenges to transmitting quantum particles on commercial infrastructure is the variability of real-world transmission lines. Unlike laboratory environments, which can maintain ideal conditions, commercial networks frequently encounter changes in temperature, thanks to weather, as well as vibrations from human activities like construction and transportation, not to mention seismic activity.<\/p>\n

To counteract this, the researchers developed an error-correction method that takes advantage of the fact that interference to the classical header will affect the quantum signal in a similar fashion. \u201cBecause we can measure the classical signal without damaging the quantum one,\u201d says Feng, \u201cwe can infer what corrections need to be made to the quantum signal without ever measuring it, preserving the quantum state.\u201d<\/p>\n

In testing, the system maintained transmission fidelities above 97%, showing that it could overcome the noise and instability that usually destroy quantum signals outside the lab. And because the chip is made of silicon and fabricated using established techniques, it could be mass produced, making the new approach easy to scale.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur network has just one server and one node, connecting two buildings, with about a kilometer of fiber-optic cable installed by Verizon between them,\u201d says Feng. \u201cBut all you need to do to expand the network is fabricate more chips and connect them to Philadelphia\u2019s existing fiber-optic cables.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AYichi Zhang, a doctoral student in Materials Science and Engineering, with the equipment used to generate and send the quantum signal over Verizon fiber optic cables. (Credit: Sylvia Zhang)
\nThe Future of the Quantum Internet<\/p>\n

The main barrier to scaling quantum networks beyond a metro area is that quantum signals cannot yet be amplified without destroying their entanglement.<\/p>\n

While some teams have shown that \u201cquantum keys,\u201d special codes for ultra-secure communication, can travel long distances over ordinary fiber, those systems use weak coherent light to generate random numbers that cannot be copied, a technique highly effective for security applications but not sufficient to link actual quantum processors.<\/p>\n

Overcoming this challenge will require new devices, but the Penn study provides an important early step: showing how a chip can run quantum signals over existing commercial fiber using internet-style packet routing, dynamic switching and on-chip error mitigation that work with the same protocols that manage today\u2019s networks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis feels like the early days of the classical internet in the 1990s, when universities first connected their networks,\u201d says Broberg. \u201cThat opened the door to transformations no one could have predicted. A quantum internet has the same potential.\u201d<\/p>\n

This study was conducted at the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science and was supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (GBMF12960 and DOI 10.37807), Office of Naval Research (N00014-23-1-2882), National Science Foundation (DMR-2323468), Olga and Alberico Pompa endowed professorship, and PSC-CUNY award (ENHC-54-93).<\/p>\n

Additional co-authors include Alan Zhu, Gushi Li and Jonathan Smith of the University of Pennsylvania, and Li Ge of the City University of New York.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yichi Zhang, a doctoral student in Materials Science and Engineering, inspects the source of the quantum signal. (Credit:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[64,63,44757,237,25125,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-105497","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-internet","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-ese","11":"tag-internet","12":"tag-mse","13":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}