China Micius QESSS satellite heralds Quantum Communications, encrypted Fiber Waveguides and Li-Fi

China has decided that Quantum encryption is a standard worth experimenting and investing in to protect their Telecoms from State sponsored hacking.

To this end, they've launched Micius, the first Satellite that uses Quantum teleportation to test the concept as reported in the article “China launches quantum-enabled satellite Micius”, published 16 August 2016, BBC News. 

Quess was launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in China's North West early on Tuesday August 16^th 2016.  The 1,300 pounds is called Quess (Quantum Experiments at Space Scale) and is named after the ancient Chinese scientist and philosopher Micius, a Chinese philosopher and scientist who lived in the fifth century B.C.

Check out the launch below.

The satellite is experimental as this is the first time that scientists are testing the idea of sending encrypted data in the form of a light beam. This laser will transmit the state of two samples of quantum entangled bits whose qubits are being manipulated to form 1's and 0's standard in Telecommunications transmission.

I'm personal thrilled at this test, as the use of quantum entanglement to transmit qubits is an idea I've mentioned in my blog article entitled “Kavli Institute of Nanoscience demonstrates Quantum Teleportation – Super-cooled Diamonds demonstrate faster-than-light potential for Computing and Telecommunications”.

The quantum entangle state of the atoms being transmitted by the Micius Satellite is the quantum state of the qubits, will be received and decoded by the other sample at base stations in China and Austria.

The beauty of this type of encryption is that any attempt to intercept changes the quantum state being observed, indicating that someone is tapping the data.

Quantum Telecommunications is coming - Near Light speed Fiber Optic Waveguides

This would solve the problem of transmitting encryption keys securely, effectively making satellite communications and telecoms unhackable. But what has me hopeful is that this technology can be brought down to Earth be combined with the development of near light speed encrypted Fiber Optics Data Transmission.

The idea is to combine Quantum Communications with hollow Fiber optic cables developed by University of Southampton in the UK which are effectively waveguides that allow light to achieve speeds close to light as reported in the article “Researchers create hollow fiber optic cable, almost reach the speed of light”, 26 March 2013 by Myriam Joire, Engadget. 

Because the waveguides are hollow, not only does the UV (ultraviolet Light) move faster, but it also can carry the quantum states of entangles atoms, making detection of spice attempts by intruder nearly impossible.

Quantum Telecommunications would also make Laser Radio Technology Networks more secure.  Laser Radio Technology Networks more secure are a free space technology based on lasers to communicate in much the same way Fiber Optic Cables operate as described in my blog article entitled “@AOptix testing Laser Radio Technology Networks - How Laser based FTTH Networks delivers Broadband to Communities in the Last Mile”. 

Quantum Communications could also be used to make secure FTTH (Fiber to the Home Networks) without Fiber Optics. More importantly, it would also add an encryption layer to Li-Fi, which is looking more and more to be a part of the 5G roadmap as explained in my Geezam blog article entitled “5G Networks with Renewable Energy, Fiber Optic Waveguides and AI”.

Quantum Communications which will definitely be a part of 5G Networks in the future as Optical Processors are already in the works thanks to researchers at  the University of California Berkeley and MIT (Massachusetts of Technology) as explained in my blog article entitled “Why @UCBerkeley and @MIT Optical Processor means Li-Fi and 5G Wireless by 2020”. 

Albeit the Chinese have beaten the world by testing this tech first, it will eventually have to come down to Earth if it is to be practically applicable.