US 10,225,080 B2 · Method and systems for routing entangled photons to quantum network users via a reconfigurable switch networks of optical crossbar switches

Abstract

Quantum networking systems and methods for routing entangled photons pairs are described herein. One quantum networking system includes entangled photon sources which generate entangled photons; optical output ports; a reconfigurable switching network connecting to the entangled photon sources and the output ports, which include a regular repeating structure of optical crossbar switches and interconnections for selectively routing individual ones of entangled photons pairs input to the network to and amongst the outputs; and a control module. The control module is configured to receive a request for entangled photons at the output ports; execute a routing algorithm to determine the state of the switches in the reconfigurable switching network to satisfy the request; and generate and transmit control signals to the switching network in order to set the states of the switches according to the executed routing algorithm. The reconfigurable switching network may be a Beneš or a banyan-type network architecture.

Claims19

Dependent claims

A quantum networking system for routing entangled photons pairs comprising:

one or more entangled photon sources which generate a plurality of entangled photon pairs;
a plurality N of optical output ports;
a reconfigurable switching network connecting to the one or more entangled photon sources and the plurality of optical output ports, which comprises a regular repeating structure of optical crossbar switches and their interconnections for selectively routing individual ones of entangled photons pairs that are input to the network from the one or more entangled photon sources to and amongst the output ports;
and
a control module configured to:
receive a request for entangled photons at the optical output ports;
execute a routing algorithm to determine the state of the optical crossbar switches in the reconfigurable switching network to satisfy the request;
and
generate and transmit electronic control signals to the reconfigurable switching network in order to set the states of the optical crossbar switches according to the executed routing algorithm.

6 more elements

A method of for routing entangled photons pairs via a quantum networking system comprising:

one or more entangled photon sources which generate a plurality of entangled photon pairs;
a plurality N of optical output ports;
a reconfigurable switching network connecting to the one or more entangled photon sources and the plurality of optical output ports, which comprises a regular repeating structure of optical crossbar switches and their interconnections for selectively routing individual ones of entangled photons pairs that are input to the network from the one or more entangled photon sources to and amongst the output ports;
and a control module, the method comprising:
receiving a request for entangled photons at the optical output ports;
executing a routing algorithm to determine the state of the optical crossbar switches in the reconfigurable switching network to satisfy the request;
and
generating and transmitting electronic control signals to the reconfigurable switching network in order to set the states of the optical crossbar switches according to the executed routing algorithm.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Method and systems for routing entangled photons to quantum network users via a reconfigurable switch networks of optical crossbar switches

Life of this patent

Method and systems for routing entangled photons to quantum network users via a reconfigurable switch networks of optical crossbar switches

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims19