Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2023.  Read them in this 15th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.

The Future of Quantum is Entanglement-Based

By Mike Wood, Chief Marketing Officer, Aliro Quantum

2022 has been an exciting year for quantum technology breakthroughs. Several major quantum network initiatives were announced including the AWS Center for Quantum Networking, DC-Qnet, and Brookhaven National Laboratory's Quantum Network Facility to name a few.  Chattanooga power company EPB announced plans to launch a commercially-available quantum network which is proof that quantum technology, particularly quantum networking, will become more accessible and revenue-generating in 2023. These are five predictions for 2023 in the quantum space:

1.   Fresh indicators that quantum computing is capable of breaking existing encryption algorithms and intercepting communications

While experts are divided on how soon we'll see a quantum computer large and powerful enough to sustainably break today's classical math-based encryption standards, the progress made in 2022 and the United States' push to promote leadership in quantum computing shows that it's not a matter of if, but when.  We will see further proof and indicators in 2023 that the acceleration of quantum computing's ability to begin cracking existing math-based encryption algorithms is much closer than we think.

2.   Quantum networking will accelerate as organizations evaluate the interconnection of quantum computers to one another

Today's quantum computers are able to calculate some problems more quickly than their classical computing counterparts, but are not yet able to solve the practical problems until they scale up their qubit counts and implement error correction. Quantum computers are not at the point to be economically beneficial, and scaling quantum computing is necessary for large scale adoption and return on investment.  We will see further proof that entanglement-based quantum networks will enable the interconnection of quantum compute clusters to operate as unified systems, and deliver increased processing.

3.   Quantum Secure Communications (QSC) will continue to gain prevalence as a way to augment and improve Quantum Key Distribution (QKD)

While the security of QSC and QKD are based on the laws of quantum physics, QSC employs entanglement-based end-to-end connectivity, quantum teleportation, and other quantum network protocols. These entanglement-based quantum security protocols run over and are enabled by entanglement-based quantum networks, and are provably secure.  We will begin to see an implementation shift to multipurpose entanglement-based quantum networks from mission-specific QKD networks driven by cost reduction and the ability to agnostically support multiple services.

4.   Multipurpose entanglement-based networks will become the defacto standard for quantum networks

Quantum networks require sophisticated control, management, and orchestration to operate seamlessly and at optimum capacity. While entanglement-based networks will require use of some emerging technologies, they do not need to be built entirely from scratch. These networks are able to leverage existing classical infrastructure such as optical fiber.  We will experience a watershed event in 2023 with most new quantum network announcements leveraging entanglement-based quantum technologies.  These multipurpose quantum networks will support end-to-end quantum secure communications, distributed quantum sensors, and networked quantum computers.

5.   The Quantum Internet Connects

We will see one or more metropolitan entanglement-based quantum networks connect to one another across larger geographical distances in North America.  Local quantum networks will begin to experimentally interconnect with other quantum networks to be able to test and trial longer range communications over entanglement-based quantum networks.  This is analogous to the initial connections between local networks which began the creation of what is today known as the Internet.  In 2023, the Quantum Internet will begin.

The benefits of quantum networks are just beginning to be understood with potential breakthrough solutions to a number of major challenges. 2022 was a major year in building the fundamentals of quantum networks and the pace of innovation will accelerate in 2023.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mike Wood is Chief Marketing Officer at Aliro Quantum, the first pure play quantum networking company. He has more than 30 years of experience in enterprise networking, security and software, as well as a passion for launching new solutions, categories and technologies.