Talk of Don Towsley (Univ. Massachusetts): "Research Issues in Quantum Networks for Entanglement Distribution"

Research Issues in Quantum Networks for Entanglement Distribution

D. Towsley
College of Information & Computer Sciences
UMass - Amherst

Abstract
Quantum information processing is at the cusp of having significant impacts
on technology and society in the form of providing unbreakable security,
ultra-high-precision distributed sensing with applications to metrology
and science discovery (e.g., LIGO), much higher-rate deep space optical
communications than possible with conventional systems, and polynomial
speeds up on graphical search with implications to big data. Most of these
applications are enabled by high-rate distributed shared entanglement
between pairs and groups of users. A critical missing component that
prevents crossing this threshold is a distributed infrastructure in the
form of a world-wide quantum network to enable this. This motivates our
study of quantum networks, namely what the right architecture is and how
to operate it, i.e., route
multiple quantum information flows, and allocate resources fairly and
dynamically.

In this talk we review a specific quantum network architecture and present
opportunities and challenges related to resource sharing among multiple
parties of users.  In particular, we focus on the determination of the
capacity region associated with a particular network, i.e., characterize
the vector of user entanglement rates that can be supported by the
network.  Throughout the talk we will focus on issues related to resource
allocation based on global/local state information and the benefits of
path diversity.

Biography:
Don Towsley holds a B.A. in Physics (1971) and a Ph.D. in Computer Science
(1975) from University of Texas.  He is currently a Distinguished
Professor at the University of Massachusetts in the College of Information
& Computer Sciences.  He has held visiting positions at numerous
universities and research labs including INRIA. His research interests
include networks, network science, and performance evaluation.

He was a founding Co-Editor-in-Chief of the new ACM Transactions on
Modeling and Performance Evaluation of Computing Systems (ToMPECS) and has
served as Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, and
on numerous editorial boards.  He has served as Program Co-chair of
several conferences including INFOCOM 2009.  He is a member of ACM and
IEEE.

He has received numerous IEEE and ACM awards including the 2007 IEEE Koji
Kobayashi Award, and the ACM SIGCOMM and ACM SIGMETRICS Achievement
Awards. Last, he has been elected Fellow of both the ACM and IEEE and is a
corresponding member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences.