A big step toward building a truly-secure global communication network
- Successful demonstration of quantum communication between a satellite and a ground station
- A big step toward the development of future satellite constellations using small satellites
- It facilitates the adoption of this technology in a global truly-secure communication network
NICT developed the world’s smallest and lightest quantum-communication transmitter (SOTA) onboard the microsatellite SOCRATES. We succeeded in the demonstration of the first quantum-communication experiment from space, receiving information from the satellite in a single-photon regime in an optical ground station in Koganei city. SOTA weighs 6 kg and its size is 17.8 cm length, 11.4 cm width and 26.8 cm height. It transmits a laser signal to the ground at a rate of 10 million bits per second from an altitude of 600 km at a speed of 7 km/s. We succeeded in correctly detecting the communication signal from SOTA moving at this fast speed.
This is a major step toward building a global long-haul and truly-secure satellite communication network.
As a result of this research, NICT demonstrated that satellite quantum communication can be implemented with small low-cost satellites, which makes it possible to many research institutions and companies to use this key technology. It is an achievement that opens a new page in the development future global communication networks, being a big boost to the space industry.
Background
The technologies required to launch small satellites at a low cost have progressed immensely during this century, and significant efforts are being made to develop satellite constellations to achieve a global communication network covering the entire Earth. However, there is a need for a technology that can transmit large amounts of information from the space to the ground in short periods of time, and the current RF bands are already congested, setting a bottleneck of communication capacity. By using lasers, satellite optical communication has a readily-available frequency band and can transmit with higher power efficiency and with smaller and lighter terminals. Thus, it is expected to be a key technology to support the future satellite communication networks.
Quantum communication, and more specifically, Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) is another key technology to guarantee the information security of the next global communication networks. Current QKD links are limited to several hundreds of km, thus implementing satellite-to-ground QKD is a fundamental step in this endeavor. QKD research is actively conducted in Japan, China, Europe, Canada and the United States (see supplementary information on recent research and development trends). In August of 2016, the University of Science and Technology of China launched a large (635 kg) quantum-communication satellite and performed a quantum-entanglement experiment with two ground stations.
Fig. 1. Image of SOTA onboard SOCRATES.
SOTA is the world’s smallest and lightest quantum-communication transmitter (6 kg weight, 17.8 cm length, 11.4 cm width, and 26.8 cm height) embarked on the microsatellite SOCRATES (see Fig. 1). SOTA transmitted two polarization states, encoding ‘0’s and ‘1’s (see Fig. 2a, b), to the ground at a rate of 10 million bits per second. The signals from SOTA were received at the NICT optical ground station in Tokyo’s Koganei city, using a 1-m telescope (see Fig. 2c) in order to collect the transmitted photons and guide them to the quantum receiver (see Fig. 2d) to decode the information using a QKD protocol.
The signal that arrives at the 1-m telescope is extremely weak, with an average of 0.1 photons per received pulse. NICT developed the technology to perform the time synchronization and polarization reference frame matching between the satellite and the ground station directly from the QKD signals, as well as a quantum receiver capable of detecting such a weak signal with low noise. We demonstrated the world’s first quantum communication from a 50-kg microsatellite. This will enable the development of future secure links from space by using quantum cryptography to completely prevent information leakage.
Future prospects
The technology developed in this project demonstrated that satellite quantum communication can be implemented by using low-cost lightweight microsatellites. Therefore, it is expected that many research institutes and companies, which are interested in this technology, will accelerate the practical application of quantum communication from space. In addition, since it was proved that long-distance communication is possible with very-low electric power, this will open up a path to speed up deep-space optical communication with exploration spacecraft.
In the future, we plan to further increase the transmission speed and improve the precision of the tracking technology, to maximize the secure key delivery from space to ground by using quantum cryptography enabling a truly-secure global communication network, whose confidentiality is currently threatened by the upcoming development of quantum computers.
Learn more:World’s First Demonstration of Space Quantum Communication Using a Microsatellite
The Latest on: Quantum communication
[google_news title=”” keyword=”quantum communication” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]- Australia to fund $620M quantum computer claimed to be first at 'utility-scale'on April 29, 2024 at 8:10 pm
Which is why Australia's federal government, and the state of Queensland, yesterday pledged AU$940 million ($620 million) to support a startup called PsiQuantum so it can build what's been described ...
- Australia news live: BHP offers $40bn Brazil dam settlement; $1bn public investment in Brisbane quantum computeron April 29, 2024 at 3:20 pm
Follow live ...
- The U.S. Must Win the Quantum Computing Race. History Shows How to Do Iton April 29, 2024 at 12:10 pm
But breakthroughs in 2023 signaled that quantum computers have embarked on a new era, one that may unleash a technological revolution full of possibilities—some good and some bad. On the positive side ...
- New system boosts efficiency of quantum error correctionon April 29, 2024 at 11:34 am
"Quantum systems are intrinsically noisy ... However, this kind of long-distance communication between qubits had always been the sticking point in implementing qLDPC. The researchers came up with a ...
- Arqit announces collaboration to deliver out-of-the-box post-quantum cryptography solutionson April 29, 2024 at 6:00 am
LONDON, April 29, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Arqit Quantum Inc. (Nasdaq: ARQQ, ARQQW) (Arqit), a leader in quantum-safe encryption, today announced the creation of the World’s First Quantum-Safe, 1.89 ...
- Unveiling a new quantum frontier: Frequency-domain entanglementon April 26, 2024 at 9:03 am
Scientists have introduced a form of quantum entanglement known as frequency-domain photon number-path entanglement. This advance in quantum physics involves an innovative tool called a frequency beam ...
- Space Age Security: How Satellites Could Extend Quantum Encryption Globallyon April 25, 2024 at 12:11 am
Quantum cryptography enables secure communication over large distances. How can we guarantee that data sent over the internet is only accessible to its intended recipient? Currently, our data is ...
- Is Your Digital Security Quantum Resilient?on April 23, 2024 at 5:16 am
Quantum computing's immense processing capability poses a potential risk to digital identity cryptographic signatures, foundational to online transactions and communications secur ...
- Breakthrough in Quantum Cloud Computing Ensures its Security and Privacyon April 22, 2024 at 6:33 am
Businesses are one step closer to quantum computing thanks to a breakthrough made in its security by scientists at Oxford University.
- Quantum Communication Breakthrough: Combatting Disruptive ‘Noise’on April 19, 2024 at 7:34 pm
In a significant milestone for quantum communication technology, an experiment has demonstrated how networks can be leveraged to combat disruptive ‘noise’ in quantum communications. The international ...
via Google News and Bing News