Quantum Edge Computing*

It is well-known that a future quantum internet will be able to distribute and process quantum information on the planetary scale – whether this is for quantum communication, distributed computation or even remote quantum metrology like tasks. Such an internet will in the long term be formed from quantum error corrected links able to distribute information over large distances all while maintaining their coherence for long periods of time. The key question however is how we evolve from today small-scale test networks to that future quantum internet. How do we bridge this divide? Quantum edge computing which involves the user data being processed as close as possible to the source as possible at the periphery of the network is one potential solution. This is quite different from the inherently centralized quantum cloud computing approach.

 

In this presentation we explore the concept of quantum edge computing and how it supports quantum communication, distributed computation, sensing and imaging tasks more naturally as our quantum networking evolves. Remembering that it involves both quantum and classical networking resources, our focus will be two-fold with the first associated how we move user data in and around the network. The second is associated with how we can operate with limited quantum networking resources and we show in particular how quantum multiplexing and network aggregation techniques naturally fit this edge computing approach.