Special issue on quantum communications – guest editorial

Abstract

This is the first time when Infocommunications Journal has a special issue on quantum communications. This year's Nobel Prize in Physics winners, David J. Wineland and Serge Haroche had a great contribution in the way to a working quantum computer. Although these computers are going to be the applications of the far future, there are already a few algorithms to solve problems which are very difficult to handle with traditional computers. Quantum computing is based on various quantum effects in physics and offers revolutionary solutions for different problems e.g., prime factorization, searching in unsorted database, key distribution and information coding. The power of quantum parallelism allows us to solve classically complex problems, and the quantum entanglement leads to quantum communication algorithms like teleportation and superdense coding. The quantum cryptography provides new ways to transmit information with unconditional security by using different quantum key distribution protocols. In this Special Issue on Quantum Communications of the Infocommunications Journal, three selected papers highlight the different directions and problems of the quantum communications.