A team of researchers from Stony Brook University and Binghamton University received a Distinguished Paper Award at the IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems (ICDCS) in Seoul for proposing a new approach to reliable, long-distance quantum communication.
The paper, “Rethinking Quantum Network Design using a Verification-Based Quantum Transmission Protocol,” was one of just five papers selected for the distinction. Approximately 145 papers were accepted to the conference from more than 800 submissions.
The research was co-authored by Stony Brook Computer Science faculty members Aruna Balasubramanian and Nengkun Yu; Computer Science PhD students Zhengyu Wu and Xuan Du Trinh; Electrical and Computer Engineering faculty member Yuanyuan Yang; and Yiming Zeng, a Stony Brook ECE PhD graduate who recently joined the faculty at Binghamton University.
Quantum networks are expected to form the foundation of a future quantum internet, allowing quantum computers and sensors to communicate securely over long distances. However, these networks depend on fragile quantum connections known as entanglements, which can decay quickly and make reliable communication difficult.
The team’s paper introduces a verification-based protocol designed to determine whether quantum entanglements are still usable before transmitting quantum information. Verification is especially challenging because measuring an entanglement destroys it. To address this problem, the researchers create several entanglements and sacrifice a subset of them to verify the quality of those that remain. The verified entanglements can then be used to teleport quantum bits.
The researchers also departed from the conventional end-to-end approach to quantum communication. Rather than creating a single, fragile entanglement spanning the entire route, their protocol verifies local connections and transmits quantum information hop by hop. Because each hop uses a verified link, the approach increases the likelihood of successful communication, even in noisy networks.
“We believe the paper stood out partly because the reviewers appreciated its unconventional perspective on long-distance quantum communication,” Balasubramanian said. “Rather than incrementally improving existing approaches, we propose a new quantum network stack that fundamentally rethinks how quantum information is transmitted across noisy networks.”
The project reflects an interdisciplinary collaboration between Computer Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering, as well as a growing cross-campus connection within SUNY. Zeng completed his PhD at Stony Brook before joining Binghamton, creating a natural opportunity for the researchers to continue working together.
Reliable quantum networks could eventually support secure communication, distributed quantum computing, highly accurate clock synchronization and new sensing technologies.
“Beyond the award itself, a recognition like this also means more visibility for our College of Engineering,” Balasubramanian said. “It also means more researchers will read the paper and hopefully build on it—and, in the process, advance the field.”
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