High Performance Time, Frequency and Spatial Multiplexing for scalable networking

Quantum computers need a new kind of network to connect them, and the switches and converters built so far have been too slow and inefficient to make that network work. Today’s telecoms networks use multiplexing—sending multiple signals across time, frequency, or space channels—to achieve high data speeds. The same principle could link quantum computers into a scalable system, but the components required, such as switches, frequency converters, and quantum memories, have consistently fallen short of the performance needed. This project will build a complete suite of networking hardware designed from the ground up to exceed that threshold for the first time. If successful, the team will demonstrate a working network where high-efficiency multiplexing and switching components together remove major bottlenecks in scaling up quantum computers. That matters because quantum computers remain isolated machines today; without a way to connect them, their collective power cannot be harnessed. A practical quantum network could eventually underpin secure communications, distributed sensing, and new forms of computation—though the immediate impact is on the infrastructure that makes those applications possible, not on everyday devices.