The use of satellites to distribute entangled photon pairs (and single photons) provides a unique solution for long-distance quantum communication networks. This overcomes the principle limitations of Earth-bound technology, i.e. the narrow range of some 100 km provided by optical fiber and terrestrial free-space links.
@article{arxiv.quant-ph/0305105,
title = {Long-Distance Quantum Communication with Entangled Photons using Satellites},
author = {Markus Aspelmeyer and Thomas Jennewein and Martin Pfennigbauer and Walter Leeb and Anton Zeilinger},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:quant-ph/0305105},
year = {2016}
}
Comments
12 pages, 7 figures; submitted to IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, special issue on "Quantum Internet Technologies"