Quantum and IoT The New Alpha

The explosive computing power that quantum computing brings can be just the thing that IoT devices need to burst to their full potential. What makes quantum a good beast—or not—for the Edge to piggyback on if it needs to run fast and far?

Who could have thought that Raptors would steal all the attention, shrieks, and squeals in the latest peek into the Jurassic universe! Not T-Rex. Not I-Rex. But Raptors.

Perhaps it had to do with the odd combination that turned out a killer one (literally). Small in size but huge in power and intelligence. The agility of a squirrel married with the fierceness of a beast.

No marks then for guessing why the very idea of Quantum IoT would be a sure-shot blockbuster. Quantum computing is way more powerful and faster than classical computing, according to many fans. Imagine what happens when it is forklifted from the giant rooms of a supercomputer and planted on a fence!

Yeah, see this is where the popcorns come in.

That Thing Out There. That’s No Dinosaur.

Unlike classical computing—which is based on pure binary play—quantum computing breaks a lot of rules. Here two things can be in two places—and at the same time. The 0 or 1 system is what classical computers work on. But quantum computers work on ‘qubits’. So they can process more information, at a faster pace, and still be comfortable with a lot of complexity. That plays very well when we are talking about the immense heterogeneity and volume of IoT devices.

That’s where the beauty of quantum computing shines—with its innate qualities of superposition and entanglement. So with the first quality, when a particle enters a superposition of states, it can behave as if it is in both states simultaneously—being both 0 and 1. In entanglement, particles can behave as if entangled in pairs—showing correlation, if they have interacted at some point and retain a type of connection.

Quantum computing is way more powerful and faster than classical computing, according to many fans. Imagine what happens when it is forklifted from the giant rooms of a supercomputer and planted on a fence!

So here, knowing the spin state of one entangled particle—whether it is up or down—can allow us to suss out the spin of its buddy in the opposite direction. Irrespective of the distance between the correlated particles, they can stay entangled and isolated. Both these unusual behaviors give an immense, and enhanced, computing power—because, unlike a bit, a 2-qubit register in a quantum computer can store four numbers simultaneously. This means a lot of new grass in the IoT forest.

When we think of IoT, we are talking about a massive amount of data, the need for heavy computation, complex optimization, fast validation, and verification processes—just the very spot where quantum computing parks itself to the T.

Whether it is their extreme computing muscle or the power to generate encryption keys using quantum mechanics—quantum on the edge and injected in IoT, is no less than a Spielberg wonder.

Quantum communication could impact many sectors in IoT and edge including industrial, energy, security, entertainment, and healthcare with better data management, security, and enhanced speed.

— Anish Khajuria, Research Analyst, Counterpoint Research

Vic Gupta, Chief Digital & Technology Officer, Coforge is quite upbeat about the potential of quantum computing in general. “Quantum Computing (QC) could be one of the most disruptive technology innovations the world has ever seen, potentially creating new ways to approach computational problems. It works on quantum physics principles, which harness the behavior of atomic and subatomic particles to perform significantly faster and more efficient computations. It can tackle complex problems that might have taken days or years to solve by the current set of computing power, even if the most powerful supercomputers available today are used,” he explains.

In fact, the true unpredictability of quantum mechanics to produce pleasantly—unpredictable encryption can make quantum devices quite adversary-proof at the Edge out there. More so with the power of quantum key distribution, a really secure way to encrypt and decrypt information. Because a quintessential property of quantum is entanglement. And this makes it possible for encryption keys to be sent in the form of two ‘identical, random particles’. With no transmission channel—there is no place where data can leak from or can be stolen from.

Prakash Bell, Head-Security Engineering (India & SAARC), Checkpoint Software Technologies explains that Quantum computing harnesses the collective properties of states such as superposition, interference, and entanglement, to perform calculations. “Unlike conventional computers that are linear in nature, quantum computing solves the problems by performing several computations at the same time, reducing latency for applications, which makes it super-efficient.”

He notes that Edge computing plays a pivotal role as it enables data processing within 15 milliseconds, thereby addressing the processing needs of a growing number of IoT devices. “With 5G, this challenge has been addressed which is why several telecom companies are exploring if they can have edge computing infrastructure in the towers that they currently own so that the latency may be substantially reduced, allowing edge algorithms on telco networks. Quantum computing provides humongous capabilities, playing a major role in AI & ML, computational chemistry, drug design & development, cyber security and cryptography, finance modeling, logistic optimisation, and weather forecasting.”

It’s everywhere from your home to your workplace. Different people have different estimates based on what they assume to be part of quantum technology, but it is a large industry. If you ‘consider’ quantum materials or devices, you are not an early adopter. You are late to the game.

— Dr. Christian Marciniak, Department of Experimental Physics, University of Innsbruck would

As quantum computing runs complex and comprehensive algorithms, with 5G enabling Edge computing the challenge of data processing can easily be addressed as the technology enables computation at the edge and limits the processing time drastically with under millisecond response times yielding an exponential factor of computing power, Gupta zooms in on the ‘Edge’ side of the quantum-muscle here.

The quantum tech industry has shown rapid growth from academic to corporate boardrooms in the past five years, reckons Anish Khajuria, Research Analyst, Counterpoint Research. “In IoT and edge, it has solved the major issue of data security but also the computation and transfer of data are a million times faster than a standard supercomputer. Quantum communication could impact many sectors in IoT and edge including industrial, energy, security, entertainment and healthcare with better data management, security and enhanced speed.”

Khajuria points out that the quantum race to make qubits at scale is already underway. “Governments and private companies all around the world are investing billions of dollars into quantum research and development. However, the pre-phase of quantum computing has already begun, many companies nowadays are providing quantum computing on the cloud as a service (QCaaS) which is a great start for quantum technology. It has the potential of a multibillion-dollar industry by 2030.”

In recent research done by Capgemini Research Institute, it was observed that 23 percent of organizations are working (or planning to work) on leveraging quantum technologies, with expectations of at least one major commercial application within the next 3-5 years. About 20 percent of organizations are expecting to increase investments in technology in the next year. It notes that Quantum communications could address the new requirements of information security, in particular, to secure information exchange with external parties, protect critical infrastructure (IoT and cloud-enabled technologies) within the organization, or secure cloud data centers.

What’s interesting emerges is the power and spread of Quantum sensors. According to the report, they are more niche but also more mature. “As they become smaller, more energy-efficient, and cheaper, sensors could play a transformative role across industries. Quantum sensors can accelerate the precision of measurement, notably in the healthcare/diagnostics, defense, automotive, civil engineering, construction, oil/gas, space, and telecom sectors.

Quantum technology is not new, as Dr. Christian Marciniak, Department of Experimental Physics, University of Innsbruck would underline. “It’s everywhere from your home to your workplace. Different people have different estimates based on what they assume to be part of quantum technology, but it is a large industry. If you ‘consider’ quantum materials or devices, you are not an early adopter. You are late to the game.”

As Arun Chandrasekaran, Distinguished VP Analyst at Gartner opines that Quantum computing is in its infancy now, and the set of initial use cases Quantum will enable using time critical optimization problems and portfolio optimization problems.

Quantum computing is in its infancy now, and the set of initial use cases Quantum will enable using time-critical optimization problems and portfolio optimization problems.

— Arun Chandrasekaran, Distinguished VP Analyst, Gartner

She’s killing for Sport

However, taming these Raptors, as Owen Grady would tell you, is not that easy. Ask the Velociraptor trainers of the technology jungle, and you would know that these devices can be as blood-thirsty and risky as a wild hound left on its own.

Bell minces no words in saying that while fully functional quantum computers appear to be on the horizon and will be easy to reach for businesses, there are still a number of quantum processing challenges to overcome such as precision and non-critical failure adaption, with a four to five-year expectancy to ensure its credibility. “Apart from this, quantum computing also poses a threat to traditional encryption techniques, unable to match quantum capabilities, making it imperative to implement quantum-safe algorithms as soon as possible.

Plus, there is the big sharp tooth of security that these Raptors can bite with—whether intentionally or mistakenly. While Quantum IoT is beneficial to us, it also poses a number of major security risks such as data leaks, side-channel attacks, malware, and data authentication, Bell reminds. “According to Vodafone’s IoT Spotlight 2020 study, almost four in 10 (38 percent) companies in APAC are already using IoT with 81 percent of companies expecting to launch IoT projects due to the pandemic. Due to its extensive use, IoT is vulnerable to a variety of security attacks and breaches.”

What about the possibility of sprawl and duplication between the core and the Edge? Chandrasekaran weighs in that Edge environments do not have a single shape or set of characteristics. “Rather, there are ‘layers’ of Edge environments ranging from the device edge (environments on or close to physical devices in the field) to local data centers (environments close to traditional data centers and the cloud). Edge also brings new data governance challenges. Ensuring security, privacy, quality and life cycle expectations are met in distributed environments—poses challenges for organizations still wrestling with getting governance right in traditional environments.”

Like Bell argues, quantum computing also significantly increases processing time and capabilities. Not to forget, 58 percent of organizations working on quantum are waiting for standards to emerge before prioritizing quantum-safe security; as per the Capgemini Research Institute report. Quantum computing has the highest potential of all quantum domains but it is also the least mature. The pace of development has accelerated, driven by investor interest, expanding use cases, and technology breakthroughs. On average, a majority of organizations working on quantum believe that the first commercial quantum computing applications are five years away—it added.

An interesting research, Aman Kaushik, Assistant Professor, and Rohit Narwal, B.E. CSE (IoT), Chandigarh University, point out that replacing every node from an IoT network and using a quantum device will not be practical as it can cause too much overhead and handling this much entanglement will be too messy and very complicated. If there are 10 quantum devices in an IoT network, every device must be able to communicate with each other, and to do so every device must hold qubits that are entangled with other devices. To add to that, Qubits are very sensitive to noise (change in temperature, pressure, and any environmental phenomenon) and can easily lose their entanglement and superposition. Also, the quantum system requires a very isolated and cold environment, it is not possible to isolate every device as they can be as small as a bottle cap and thousands in number distributed far away from each other.

we will see quantum computing in the foreseeable future only at specialised sites like data centers, while Edge computing goes in the exact opposite direction, namely distributed computing.

— Prof. Martin Schulz, Professor, Department of Computer Science, Technical University of Munich, and member of the Munich Quantum Valley consortium

Many D&A teams are unprepared to capture the opportunities or handle the complexities of Edge environments, Chandrasekaran points out. “This is because most of their skills, design principles, architectures, and tools have been focused entirely on data center and cloud deployment models. Data leaders should plan to augment existing data management and analytics infrastructure to support Edge deployment by partnering with product teams that are implementing IoT platforms and similarly distributed computing architectures.”

One major challenge, in Khajuria’s assessment, is qubits, which are incredibly fragile compared to bits. “Even a slight disturbance to them is enough to destroy all the quantum information. That is why most current quantum machines are carefully shielded in isolated environments operating at temperatures far colder than outer space which is extremely expensive to set up. Hence given the current state of the field, it’s not clear when we will be able to achieve the full power of quantum computing.”

And Raptors need a lot of food to eat and run the way they run. A lot of this food is not easy to whip up.

“Since quantum computing needs special infrastructure, e.g., cooling to nearly absolute zero, excellent shielding against external influences, high requirements to the surrounding computing infrastructure, it will be most likely that we will see quantum computing in the foreseeable future only at specialised sites like data centers, while Edge computing goes in the exact opposite direction, namely distributed computing.” Reckons Prof. Martin Schulz, Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the Technical University of Munich and member of the Munich Quantum Valley consortium

Don’t Ever Turn Your Back On The Cage

As Kaushik and Narwal reason well in their research, quantum computing will be easily and efficiently implemented in IoT but for now, they cost about $10 billion in just hardware, far from the reach of common use for an average human. In the future when it becomes small and is available to everyone, at that time it will be a new era of quantum technology. They note that there is still a way to integrate both IoT and Quantum technology and make the best out of them. Instead of making every device in an IoT network a quantum-operated device, there can be the main server (quantum) just like a gateway that performs all the quantum operations and passes on the classical information to the IoT network. Such sophisticated systems will also be free from issues of backward compatibility, single points of failure, and other challenges.

Quantum at the Edge is really far off, as Chandrasekaran maintains. And as Bell sums it up well—Understanding the problems of quantum computing is only one-half of the equation, as quantum is a world apart from what businesses are used to.

All we can bet on is the classic Jurassic adage here—Life, somehow, finds a way.

By Pratima Harigunani

pratimah@cybermedia.co.in