{"id":129425,"date":"2025-09-11T07:35:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T07:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/129425\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T07:35:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T07:35:15","slug":"penn-engineers-send-quantum-signals-with-standard-internet-protocol-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/129425\/","title":{"rendered":"Penn Engineers send quantum signals with standard internet protocol"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\">In a first-of-its-kind experiment, engineers at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.seas.upenn.edu\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Penn\u2019s School of Engineering and Applied Science<\/a> have 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 <a href=\"http:\/\/doi.org\/10.1126\/science.adx6176\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">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<p>\n            Part 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.\n          <\/p>\n<p>                            (Image: Sylvia Zhang)<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The Penn team\u2019s tiny \u201cQ-Chip\u201d (quantum-classical hybrid internet by photonics) coordinates quantum and classical data and, crucially, speaks the same language as the modern web. This 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<p class=\"p1\">\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 <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.seas.upenn.edu\/liang-feng\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Liang Feng<\/a>, professor in materials science and engineering (MSE) and in electrical and systems engineering (ESE), and the paper\u2019s senior author.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Once quantum particles are measured, they lose their unusual properties, which makes scaling a quantum network extremely difficult.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cNormal networks measure data to guide it towards the ultimate destination,\u201d says\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nanoquant.seas.upenn.edu\/team\/robert-broberg\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">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<p class=\"p1\">To get around this obstacle, the team developed the \u201cQ-Chip\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\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/yichi-zhang-22354b1a1\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">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<p class=\"p2\">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<p class=\"p2\">Read more at <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.seas.upenn.edu\/penn-engineers-send-quantum-signals-with-standard-internet-protocol\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Penn Engineering Today<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a first-of-its-kind experiment, engineers at Penn\u2019s School of Engineering and Applied Science have brought quantum networking out&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129426,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[1638,86,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-129425","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-internet","8":"tag-internet","9":"tag-technology","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}