Conf42: Quantum Computing 2022

To scale quantum computers, the communication between them is key. The benefits of quantum computation are realized when that computation occurs in a distributed manner - this requires a quantum network to join those computational elements together, placing the prospect of quantum communication as a critical piece of the puzzle. However long-distance quantum communication is raising a number of questions that are not yet answered.

There are different modes of operations that a quantum network could have, each of them requiring quantum repeaters to guarantee end-to-end communication. All these modes come with their challenges in terms of communication rate, quantum memory management or cost of the network. This leads to additional challenges to address such as the reliability of information exchange and the integrity of end-to-end transport, as well as considerations around the engineering approach to quantum networking.

In this session, we will explore the role of quantum communication in getting quantum computers to scale meaningfully, the related challenges the industry needs to overcome and how Cisco is approaching these issues through close collaboration with selected academic partners.