This text is taken from the Courrier de l’économie of July 11, 2022. To subscribe, click here.
A first quantum network is born in Sherbrooke. What does a quantum network do? It’s a computer network — a fiber optic network, to be exact — over which digital information travels in the same way as a normal computer network, or the Internet. With the exception that instead of exchanging bits of information, this network exchanges “qubits” of information.
Of what? Qubits are the building blocks of quantum computing. The bit, as we know, has only two states: either it is zero or it is one. A stack of bits makes it possible to create more advanced functions, which end up taking the form of software and applications that we use every day on our workstation or on a smartphone.
Qubits are a superposition of bits that can adopt either of the two values of a bit at the same time. This particularity makes it possible to overdrive the computing power of a computer. For example, the quantum computer developed by Google researchers is currently 158 million times faster at solving certain mathematical equations than the most powerful “traditional” supercomputer.
A quantum network is somewhat the equivalent for digital networks of a quantum computer for modern computing. The promise is to be able to exchange qubits from one quantum processor to another. All this, in the long term, will obviously go extremely quickly.
“Open” quantum
We’re not there yet. And that’s the point of creating an “open” quantum network like the one set up in Sherbrooke. It is supervised by the Quebec organization Numana, in partnership with Bell. An open network means that private companies, ranging from the many start-ups already present in the quantum cluster that orbits the University of Sherbrooke, to the largest telecommunications companies or others, will be able to plug into the network to test their own applications or their own quantum hardware.
The potential is great: it ranges from training “artificial intelligence systems, for example for digital assistants that help doctors diagnose diseases and suggest the most promising therapy”, to real-time optimization ” journeys of all cars in a city simultaneously to avoid traffic jams and reduce emissions,” notes Numana.
There are currently very few such networks in the world. But if we connected them all together, we would obtain a quantum Internet which would help to take off this sector. Numana estimates the value of this sector at US$340 million today. It could rise to 3 billion by the end of the decade.
Canada, which has always been among the leaders in university quantum research, needs pilot projects like this to hope to maintain its position at the top. China, Germany and the United States are investing heavily in these technologies. The promised applications are gigantic, both in cybersecurity and in sheer computing power.
Moreover, Numana should announce later this fall the creation of a second quantum network, in Montreal this time, in partnership with Telus. A third network should see the light of day in Quebec with a third partner.
In short, to be continued.