In an article in the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineer's (IEEE)
Spectrum Magazine, Alexander Hellemans reports that the Chinese
Academy of Sciences is expected to launch it's Quantum Science Satellite
experiment some time in 2016.
The satellite will have an onboard source of quantum entangled photons
and will form part of the first space-Earth quantum network. Ground
stations in China and Europe will implement a quantum-key relay
protocol, linking the two.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Alexander Hellemans. IEEE Spectrum
The Quantum Science Satellite will be launched into a low Earth orbit and will communicate with one ground station at a time. “The satellite flies over a ground station in Europe and establishes a quantum link to the ground station, and you generate a key between the satellite and the ground station in Europe. Then, some hours later, the satellite will pass a ground station in China and establish a second quantum link and secure key with a ground station in China,” Scheidl explains.
“The satellite then has both keys available, and you can combine both keys into one key,” he adds. “Then you send, via a classical channel, the key combination to both of the ground stations. This you can do publicly because no one can learn anything from this combined key. Because one ground station has an individual key, it can undo this combined key and learn about the key of the other ground station.”
The future quantum Internet will need a network of satellites and ground stations, similar to that of the Global Positioning System, in order to exchange quantum keys instantaneously.
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Article here -
http://spectrum.ieee.org/telecom/sec...antum-internet
