Trade-off coding for quantum communication provides more benefits than previously thought
(Phys.org) -- In optical communication systems, the overall performance depends on the strategy used to transmit photons from one location to another. In previous attempts to optimize this performance, scientists found that there is a trade-off between three transmission strategies: classical communication (measured in bits), quantum communication (measured in qubits), and shared entanglement (measured in ebits). But previous research has also suggested that the benefits of using this knowledge to implement trade-off coding strategies were too small and the coding too complex to have practical value. Now in a new study, scientists have found that trade-off coding strategies can in fact have remarkable performance gains when communicating over an optical channel compared with other traditional optical communication strategies. The finding could lead to transmitting classical and quantum information simultaneously at much higher rates than is possible with other techniques.