Overview

• University of Pennsylvania researchers demonstrated packetized quantum transmission on commercial fiber using a silicon Q-chip that interfaces with standard Internet Protocol.
• The chip sends a classical header just ahead of the quantum signal, enabling real-time routing and on-chip error inference without collapsing the fragile quantum state.
• A field test on Verizon’s Philadelphia campus connected two buildings across roughly one kilometer of installed fiber and maintained transmission fidelity above 97%, as reported in Science.
• The silicon implementation uses established fabrication methods and aligns with existing telecom addressing and management tools, positioning the approach for broader deployment by adding more chips to current lines.
• Long-range scaling remains constrained because entangled signals cannot be amplified, so quantum repeaters and entanglement swapping are still needed, and long-distance QKD results do not link quantum processors.