Single-Photon Counting Receivers for 6G Optical Wireless Communications

Optical wireless communication (OWC) offers several complementary advantages to radio-frequency (RF) wireless networks such as its massive available spectrum; hence, it is widely anticipated that OWC will assume a pivotal role in the forthcoming sixth generation (6G) wireless communication networks. Although significant progress has been achieved in OWC over the past decades, the outage induced by occasionally low received optical power continues to pose a key limiting factor for its deployment. In this work, we discuss the potential role of single-photon counting (SPC) receivers as a promising solution to overcome this limitation. We provide an overview of the state-of-the-art of OWC systems utilizing SPC receivers and identify several critical areas of open problems that warrant further research in the future.

Resource Allocation in a Quantum Key Distribution Network with LEO and GEO trusted-repeaters

Quantum Key Distribution~(QKD) is a technology that enables the exchange of private encryption keys between two legitimate parties, using protocols that involve quantum mechanics principles. The rate at which secret keys can be exchanged depends on the attenuation that is experienced. Therefore, it is more convenient to replace many terrestrial fiber segments (and repeaters) by just few optical satellite links that would enable flexible global coverage. Then, the satellite nodes can take the role of trusted-relays, forwarding the secret keys from source to destination. However, since the rate at which secret keys can be generated in each quantum link is limited, it is very important to select the intermediate satellite nodes to inter-connect ground stations efficiently. This paper studies the most convenient allocation of resources in a QKD network that combines complementary connectivity services of GEO and LEO satellites. The aim of the centralized routing algorithm is to select the most convenient trusted-relays to forward the secret keys between pairs of ground stations, verifying the constraints that satellite-to-ground and inter-satellite quantum channels have.