The third instalment of the international Hub workshop on advances in quantum networking (QNetworks 2023) took place at the Glasgow Science Centre on 28-29 September. The two-day workshop aims to bring together researchers from the UK’s Quantum Communications Hub programme and similar initiatives across the world as well as industry to discuss technological challenges and solutions for creating the next generation of quantum communication networks.
This year the particular focus was on challenges and possible solutions for building a quantum network that can support the rollout of a future quantum internet with applications beyond point-to-point security, such as distributed quantum computing. Additionally, the event included sessions on: the perspective from industry; international quantum networking initiatives; quantum communications in space; and approaches towards next generation quantum networks.
The programme included a number of talks by researchers based in academia and industry. Presentations on the first day covered a wide range of topics including: China’s efforts towards a global quantum internet (Jianwei Pan, USTC), scope and progress of the EURQCI (Hanne Hübel, AIT), the convergence between quantum communications and metrology (Davide Calonico, INRIM), research at the Walton Institute (Jerry Horgan, Ireland), the UK Quantum Network Infrastructure Pilot (Jonathan Legh-Smith, UK Quantum), applications of parametric amplifiers (Takeshi Umeki, NTT), real industry use case scenarios (Cathy White, BT), quantum computing with silicon photonics (Dan Llewelly, PsiQuantum), deployment of scalable quantum networks (Andrew Shields, Toshiba), the BASQUANA project (Chris Erven, KETS), and commercialisation opportunities (Sam Johnson, Innovate UK).
Day 2 of the workshop featured talks on: network considerations for distributed quantum computing and future data centres (Sima Bahrani and Reza Nejabati, University of Bristo), high-dimensional entanglement distribution (Caterina Vigliar, DTU), nonlinear integrated quantum devices (Christine Silberhorn, Paderborn University), quantum hardware security (Mina Doosti, University of Edinburgh), networking engineering challenges (Prem Kumar, Northwestern), deployment of entanglement networking in metropolitan areas (Mehdi Namazi, Qunnect), quantum group key encryption with a network advantage (Alessandro Fedrizzi, HWU), quantum advantage for advanced cryptographic protocols (Eleni Diamanti, CNRS), developments in post-quantum cryptography (Ciara Rafferty), updates on the SPEQTRE (Rebecca Harwin, RAL Space), SPOQC (Elizabeth Eso, HWU), QEYSSat (Katanya Kuntz, University of Waterloo) space missions, methods for space quantum communications (Paolo Villoresi, Padova University), and finite size effects in satellite QKD (Daniel Oi, Strathclyde University).
The event was attended by over 330 delegates in person and online. It was organised by the Quantum Communications Hub with generous funding provided by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
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