The Quantum Internet will offer game-changing opportunities and deliver multiple benefits. This was revealed by Luciano Lenzini, who brought the Internet to Italy and who today works on the “Quantum”
No one today can predict the opportunities that the As much as the Internet will be able to offer. But on the other hand, who would have imagined, in 1969, that the launch of ARPAnet – the network of computers connected by the US Defense Agency Darpa and progenitor of the Internet – would have brought about an authentic revolution in human civilization, with almost 5 billions of people open to the virtual world and its potential? Certainly today there is great interest in the quantum internet, confirmed by strategies and investments.
Before continuing, it is good to explain that what is the Quantum Internet: this term defines a network of quantum computers that have the task of sending, receiving and processing information encoded in quantum states.
Europe is working on the European Quantum Communication Infrastructure Initiative (EuroQCI), defined as the future European quantum communication Internet network. Also was born there Quantum Internet Alliance, a seven-year program that intends to create an innovative Quantum Internet ecosystem in Europe. Established in 2017, it has more than 40 partners including universities, research centres, startups and large TLC groups. For the first phase of the programme, which will last three and a half years and started in October 2022, a total budget of 24 million euros has been allocated. A similar initiative arose three years ago in the United States, part of National Quantum Initiative Actconverted into law by then President Trump at the end of 2018. China has been moving for some time, having sensed the potential offered by quantum computing and the quantum internet, on which scientists are active all over the world.
He also works there in Italy Luciano Lenzini, or the one who brought the Internet to Italy. In collaboration with Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf, the inventors of TCP/IP (which earned them the Turing Prize, considered the Nobel Prize for Computer Science), the Italian scientist directed the initiative that led to the commissioning of first Internet node in Italy and the fourth in Europe after Norway, the United Kingdom and Germany. He is currently full professor at the Department of Information Engineering at the University of Pisa, where he teaches quantum computing and Quantum Internet, carrying out studies and research aimed at the quantum sphere.
Takeaway
Professor Lenzini, the quantum internet is the new frontier on which research is active. Meanwhile, however, today we benefit from the Internet, which you helped bring to Italy. What do you remember of that experience?
At the National University Center for Electronic Computing (CNUCE), in Pisa, in the 1970s we started working on computer networks immediately after ARPAnet came into operation. Here we also contributed to the creation of Stella, the first European packet-switched network for satellite transmissions, a project proposed by CERN with the aim of rapidly transmitting large volumes of experimental data. On this occasion, our Italian team assumed control of the design and implementation of the network. In 1979, during a project meeting at the University College of London we were informed of the US intention to extend the Internet internationally and we were asked to participate in the experimentation. Back in Italy, after necessary discussions and with the possibility of having economic resources, I contacted Robert Kahn – who directed the experimentation of the Internet in Europe – and communicated to him the availability of the CNUCE to be part of the experimentation. He came to Pisa and together we fixed the configuration of the first Italian node in 1980. Only bureaucratic hitches delayed the start even then: in any case, on 30 April 1986 the signal (“ping”) was sent, which arrived in the United States. The rest is history.
Did you immediately realize the revolutionary scope of the Internet?
No, absolutely not. Not even Kahn and Cerf imagined the disruptive effect it would have on each of us. We understood that it was a big scientific project to which Europeans looked with great interest and whoever worked in the networks aspired to be part of it. Until 1990, the Internet was this: a project for insiders and specialized researchers. At the time, accessing its services required in-depth knowledge as well as being subject to restrictions on use related to security reasons. The invention of the World Wide Web, the launch of the first search engines, the progressive liberalization of telecommunications, the advent of WiFi and the iPhone significantly changed the use of the Internet and contributed to its global diffusion.
From the classic internet to the Quantum internet: what are the affinities and differences?
The Quantum Internet represents a revolution compared to the contemporary one and is based on a completely different communication paradigm. There is a strong belief that it will be more disruptive than the current one. The first element disruptive it will be represented by the advent of quantum computers which should be available on the market by 2030, even if they already exist at the laboratory level.
More than the affinities, however, I would highlight the differences. An element that distinguishes them concerns the context in which the designers operate: those of the classic internet were much more fortunate. In 1969, or when ARPAnet was born, computers already existed; the telecommunication lines were working and well engineered. Therefore, the possibility of exchanging messages between the various computers was concrete. Instead, in the case of the Quantum Internet, the technology is advanced, but not as mature compared to the days of the classic internet. Most importantly, the ability to transfer i qubit (quantum bit, unit of quantum information) from one quantum computer to another is not yet ready or in any case is far from being engineered to the same level as its predecessor.
Above all, we are dealing with a completely different and more complex technology.
It should be considered, for example, that the classic bit can take on two logical values to which arithmetic numbers zero and one are made to correspond. In addition to 0 and 1, there are also infinitely many other states in the quantum bit.
Then there is another element to consider: the transmission of qubits. The classic Internet transfers information in the form of bits along fiber optic cables. Some of these cables travel long distances. In the case of qubits, if the transfer takes place along an optical fiber, after a few tens of kilometers they lose their properties. Then we need gods quantum repeater, innovative and essential components in the long-distance transmission of quantum information. The realization of a quantum repeater is one of the works on which the research is focused.
Research today on which aspects is working to improve these aspects?
Different profiles operate on quantum computing, in particular physics and IT. As far as quantum physicists and engineers are concerned, they are focused on the realization of quantum repeaters and on the possibility of making qubits stable. The job of computer engineers is to use the qubits that physicists provide to build systems, among which is the Quantum Internet. Our work is, therefore, aimed at putting together functions that allow qubits to transfer from one quantum computer to another via the various quantum repeaters.
Among the most important aspects underlying the studies is theentanglement, a phenomenon that occurs when two particles, such as a pair of photons or electrons, intertwine, remain connected even when they are separated by large distances. This property – which has been tested at least over a thousand kilometers away – is such that if an operation is performed on one of the particles (for example a measurement), the other is instantly influenced. Why this happens nobody knows, but it is an empirically confirmed result. This property is exploited by quantum teleportation, whereby a qubit is teleported from one place to another. A qubit “evaporates” on the del side sender and magically appears on the receiver without the need for a means of transport to take care of delivering the qubit to its destination.
Is it possible to think that the Quantum Internet could be complementary to the classic one?
Yes. The Quantum Internet makes use of the classic one to make the repeaters communicate with each other. In addition to exchanging photons through optical fibers or teleportingthey must coordinate with each other. Coordination can take place precisely through the classic Internet. One is of help to the other, the Quantum Internet is useful to the traditional to guarantee conditions of cybersecurity, guaranteeing to the classic computers the protection of the keys to carry out communications through encryption.
So, at the moment we see a complementarity between the two areas. Naturally, the quantum internet will work on applications beyond the reach of the classic. The hope is that with the development of IQ there will be a simultaneous development of what the World Wide Web has been for the classic Internet.
What are the prospects that the quantum internet opens up? Which sectors will benefit in particular?
Quantum computers are designed to surpass those of today by running quantum algorithms, which can be applied in cryptography, research and optimization, simulation and solving large systems of linear equations. We are talking about completely different orders of magnitude and an exponential growth of computational capacity from which we will be able to greatly benefit in many aspects.
Speaking of the Quantum Internet, however, a first opportunity that opens up concerns security, as already mentioned. One of the most evident aspects is related to the execution speed of the calculation. New roads are opening up, some intuitive, many others are unknown.
As regards the sectors, those of chemistry, pharmacology and biology will benefit. Artificial intelligence and machine learning will also benefit from quantum computing and consequently sectors such as medicine or finance will benefit.
Speaking of the Quantum Internet, however, a first opportunity that opens up concerns security, as already mentioned. Think, for example, of secure voting, quantum digital signature (the quantum version of the digital signature), the detection of gravitational waves or distributed quantum computing. The cooperation of thousands of quantum computers, through IQ, opens up further new avenues: some intuitive, many others unknown.
breaking latest news © (Article protected by copyright)