David Mitlyng for Xairos

Missing Your Connection
Imagine you are taking the train across town.
You get to the train on time, but the clock at the train station is running five minutes late. So your train leaves five minutes late.
You get off at your next station, but that clock is running three minutes fast. So your connecting train has already left, leaving you stuck on the platform.
This is analogous to moving data across a network; better clock synchronization increases throughput and reduces latency, especially as these networks expand.
This is the current trend, especially for telecommunication networks that are adding microcells, picocells, and femtocells to accommodate an ever expanding appetite for data.
And 6G, which is projected to be 100 times faster than 5G, requires a new network topology that "will be more layered and more meshed."
Unfortunately, timing from GPS isn't accurate enough for modern or future networks.

Last Week's Theme: ...In with the New

• Thank you Break Off Capital! Their recent investment puts us closer to closing our seed round.
• Proposal season is in full swing. Evaluating new and upcoming solicitations from NASA, DoD, NSF and NIST, with a focus on quantum and PNT topics.
• Submitted "Global precision time distribution via satellite based entangled photon sources" paper for Photonics West. Now working on the presentation.
• Our "Quantum Secure Network Clock Synchronization" patent was published, with new patents in development.
• Board of Advisors to be announced soon.

• SPIE Photonics West, January 22 - 27, San Francisco, CA - setting up meetings now.
• ION Precise Time and Time Interval (PTTI) Meeting 2022, January 25 - 27, Long Beach, CA
• Inside Quantum Technology The Hague, February 21 - 23, The Hague, Netherlands
• Quantum Information Processing (QIP 2022), March 7 - 11, Pasadena, CA
• Satellite 2022, March 21 - 24, Washington DC
• Quantum Business Europe, March 23 - 24, location TBD
• IEEE International Conference on Space Optical Systems and Applications, March 28 - 31, Kyoto, Japan
• Space Symposium, April 4 - 7, Colorado Springs, CO
• Quantum Technologies 2022, April 3 - 7, Strasbourg, France
• Workshop on Synchronization and Timing Systems, May 9 - 12, Denver, CO
• Photonics for Quantum, June 6 - 9, Rochester, NY
• Quantum.Tech Boston, June 14-15, Boston, MA
• Quantum 2.0 Conference and Exhibition, June 13 - 16, Boston, MA
• IEEE Quantum Week 2022, September 18 - 23, Broomfield, CO

• GPS is “still a significant single point of failure in our country,” according to the US National Security Council Sr. Director for Resilience and Response.
• Adding to these concerns, China has developed a 1 Megawatt laser that can fit on a small satellite, in addition to ground-based lasers that can shoot down satellites.
• A major solar event like the Carrington Event of 1859 can also "cause big problems for GPS satellites". Fortunately, there is only a small chance of that happening.
• Is the brain a quantum processor? Some researchers believe that "a lightbulb really does go on inside our brains."
• Entangled photons can be used for distributing encryption keys and accurate time transfer. They can also be used for quantum imaging to make "the invisible visible", where "one photon has a wavelength that can be captured on camera, the other is designed to interact with the object under examination in the invisible range."
• IEEE has published their list of 12 Exciting Engineering Milestones to Look for in 2022, including the launch of space-based optical systems that will enable deep space communications.

2021 was a record year for investment in startups, nearly doubling the amount in 2020.
By the end of the year three SPACs a day were created and dry powder for new investment hit $750B, with the biggest increase in funds for early stage startups.
In return, startups returned a record $774.1 billion in exit value for their investors.
big year for quantum startups with $3.2 Billion of investment, according to The Quantum Insider (TQI) Annual Report.
Looking forward, TQI also released their Top Ten Quantum Technology Predictions for 2022. Their list includes obvious predictions like #5: China’s Year to Shine and #1. Go Public, Or Go Home.
But we like prediction #8: Philosophers Join The Conversation. "Quantum science, which powers the quantum computing and quantum technology revolution, also offers intriguing insights into how our reality exists. We expect philosophers and theologians, who have remained largely silent about this revolution, to weigh in... They will be critical for integrating this technology, which may be era-changing, into society and paving the way for a safer, more prosperous future."

To learn more, please email us or schedule a meeting here.