The information-theoretic unconditional security offered by quantum key distribution has spurred the development of larger quantum communication networks. However, as these networks grow so does the strong need to reduce complexity and overheads. Polarization based entanglement distribution networks are a promising approach due to their scalability and lack of trusted nodes. Nevertheless, they are only viable if the birefringence of all optical distribution fibres in the network is compensated to preserve the polarization based quantum state. The brute force approach would require a few hundred fibre polarization controllers for even a moderately sized network. Instead, we propose and investigate four different methods of polarization compensation. We compare them based on complexity, effort, level of disruption to network operations and performance.
@article{arxiv.2208.13584,
title = {Polarization compensation methods for quantum communication networks},
author = {Matej Peranic and Marcus Clark and Rui Wang and Sima Bahrani and Obada Alia and Soren Wengerowsky and Anton Radman and Martin Loncaric and Mario Stipcevic and John Rarity and Reza Nejabati and Siddarth K Joshi},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2208.13584},
year = {2023}
}