The Computational and Latency Advantage of Quantum Communication Networks

This article summarizes the current status of classical communication networks and identifies some critical open research challenges that can only be solved by leveraging quantum technologies. Until now, the main goal of quantum communication networks has been security. However, quantum networks can do more than just exchange secure keys or serve the needs of quantum computers. In fact, the scientific community is still investigating the possible use cases/benefits that quantum communication networks can bring. Thus, this article aims to point out and clearly describe how quantum communication networks can enhance in-network distributed computing and reduce the overall end-to-end latency, beyond the intrinsic limits of classical technologies. Furthermore, we also explain how entanglement can reduce the communication complexity (overhead) that future classical virtualized networks will experience.