Entanglement distribution via satellite: an evaluation of competing protocols assuming realistic free-space optical channels
arXiv:2510.01633 · doi:10.1103/p6lj-1d8q
Abstract
A key technical requirement of any future quantum network is the ability to distribute quantum-entangled resources between two spatially separated points at a high rate and high fidelity. Entanglement distribution protocols based on satellite platforms, which transmit and receive quantum resources directly via free-space optical propagation, are therefore excellent candidates for quantum networking, since the geometry and loss characteristics of satellite networks feasibly allow for up to continental-scale ( km) over-the-horizon communication without the infrastructure, cost, or losses associated with equivalent fibre-optic networks. In this work, we explore two network topologies commonly associated with quantum networks - entanglement distribution between two satellites in low-Earth orbit mediated by a third satellite and entanglement distribution between two ground stations mediated by a satellite in low-Earth orbit, and two entanglement distribution schemes - one where the central satellite is used as a relay, and the other where the central satellite is used to generate and distribute the entangled resource directly. We compute a bound on the rate of distribution of distillable entanglement achieved by each protocol in each network topology as a function of the network channels for both single-rail discrete- (DV) and continuous-variable (CV) resources and use or non-use of probabilistic noiseless linear quantum amplification (NLA). In the case of atmospheric channels we take into account the turbulent and optical properties of the free-space propagation. We determine that for the triple-satellite network configuration, the optimal strategy is to perform a distributed NLA scheme in either CV or DV, and for the ground-satellite-ground network the optimal strategy is to distribute a DV resource via the central satellite.
13 pages; 5 figures
References in corpus (50)
- Quantum Cryptography
- Quantum cryptography: Public key distribution and coin tossing
- Quantum sensing
- Gaussian Quantum Information
- Simple Proof of Security of the BB84 Quantum Key Distribution Protocol
- Purification of Noisy Entanglement and Faithful Teleportation via Noisy Channels
- Satellite-to-ground quantum key distribution
- Fundamental Limits of Repeaterless Quantum Communications
- General Benchmarks for Quantum Repeaters
- Ground-to-satellite quantum teleportation
- A quantum network of clocks
- Distributed Quantum Computation over Noisy Channels
- Noncommuting mixed states cannot be broadcast
- Continuous variable quantum cryptography
- Quantum repeaters: From quantum networks to the quantum internet
- Longer-Baseline Telescopes Using Quantum Repeaters
- Long-Distance Continuous-Variable Quantum Key Distribution over 202.81 km of Fiber
- Progress in satellite quantum key distribution
- Towards a global quantum network
- Quantum Clock Synchronization Based on Shared Prior Entanglement
- Noiseless Linear Amplification and Distillation of Entanglement
- Satellite-to-ground quantum communication using a 50-kg-class micro-satellite
- Distributed Quantum Sensing Using Continuous-Variable Multipartite Entanglement
- On Quantum Fidelities and Channel Capacities
- Toward Global Quantum Communication: Beam Wandering Preserves Nonclassicality
- Criteria for Continuous-Variable Quantum Teleportation
- Atmospheric Quantum Channels with Weak and Strong Turbulence
- Long-distance free-space measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution
- Nondeterministic Noiseless Linear Amplification of Quantum Systems
- Satellite Quantum Communications: Fundamental Bounds and Practical Security
- Improving the maximum transmission distance of continuous-variable quantum key distribution using a noiseless amplifier
- Security of Continuous Variable Quantum Cryptography
- CubeSat quantum communications mission
- Reverse Coherent Information
- Degradability of Bosonic Gaussian channels
- Interference at the Single Photon Level Along Satellite-Ground Channels
- Spooky action at a global distance: analysis of space-based entanglement distribution for the quantum internet
- Remote quantum clock synchronization without synchronized clocks
- Quantum communications in a moderate-to-strong turbulent space
- Generalized quantum scissors for noiseless linear amplification
- Long-distance continuous-variable quantum key distribution with quantum scissors
- Satellite-based entanglement distribution and quantum teleportation with continuous variables
- MDI-QKD: Continuous- versus discrete-variables at metropolitan distances
- A Lorentz-invariant look at quantum clock synchronization protocols based on distributed entanglement
- Composable finite-size effects in free-space CV-QKD systems
- Repeater-enhanced distributed quantum sensing based on continuous-variable multipartite entanglement
- Ideal Quantum Tele-amplification up to a Selected Energy Cut-off using Linear Optics
- Long-distance continuous-variable quantum key distribution with feasible physical noiseless linear amplifiers
- Single-photon interference over 8.4 km urban atmosphere: towards testing quantum effects in curved spacetime with photons
- Comparison of Techniques for Distillation of Entanglement over a Lossy Channel