2024/12/04 by Ilektra Karakosta-Amarantidou, Karakosta-Amarantidou, Ilektra, Raja Yehia +3 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · Computer Science · #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Quantum optics and atomic interactions #Quantum Computing Algorithms and Architecture
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2412.03356
Long-distance communication is one of the main bottlenecks in the development\nof quantum communication networks. Free-space communication is a way to\ncircumvent exponential fiber loss and to allow longer communication distances.\nSatellite nodes are the main devices currently studied for free-space\ncommunication, but they come with downsides such as high cost and low\navailability. In this work, we study an alternative to satellites, namely\naerial platforms such as high-altitude balloons. We provide a loss model to\nsimulate the channel efficiency of balloon-to-ground, ground-to-balloon, and\nballoon-to-balloon communication channels, considering a large set of hardware\nparameters. We perform a parameter exploration to exhibit important trade-offs\nin these channels, as well as simulations of different quantum key distribution\nnetwork architectures including balloon nodes. We demonstrate that balloons are\na realistic alternative to satellites for free-space communications in national\nnetwork architectures.\n