The Quantum Internet

Mission 7: Building the Quantum Internet. Part of the Quantum Courier Service, a free course from the Oxford University Quantum Information Society.

Right then, pay attention, recruit; we are tasked with spiriting a rather sensitive VIP qubit from our labs to all over Oxford navigating a fiber-optic network that is, quite frankly, as unreliable as an undergraduate’s promise to finish a thesis on time. These photons possess a ghastly habit of losing coherence the moment they leave our sight, so your objective is to strategically deploy our limited supply of quantum repeaters to keep the signal vibrant until it reaches its destination. Drop your repeaters too early, and you’ll run dry before hitting the destination; wait a moment too long, and you’ll lose the data to the cold, dark void of the network. It’s a rather delicate bit of logistical espionage, so do mind your budgeting, the Ministry is dreadfully unforgiving when it comes to wasting expensive hardware. Chop chop!