Breaking the Storage-Bandwidth Tradeoff in Distributed Storage with Quantum Entanglement

2026-01-15

AI Summary

This work proposes a quantum-enhanced repair mechanism for distributed storage systems that overcomes the fundamental trade-off between storage overhead and repair bandwidth, which classical approaches cannot simultaneously minimize. By leveraging quantum entanglement resources and transmitting classical information over quantum channels, the scheme enables a newcomer node to directly reconstruct stored data through quantum measurements. Within the standard (n, k, d) regenerating code framework, the method achieves, for the first time, simultaneous optimality in both storage and repair bandwidth when d ≥ 2k − 2—surpassing the classical storage–bandwidth trade-off limit. Theoretical analysis fully characterizes the resulting quantum-enhanced trade-off curve, demonstrating significant gains over classical schemes, particularly at the minimum storage regeneration point.

Technology Category

• Search and Optimization: Distributed Search
• Machine Learning: Quantum Machine Learning
• Constraint Satisfaction and Optimization: Distributed CSP/Optimization

Application Category

• Responsible Web: Data and user privacy-enhancing technologies for the Web
• Graph Algorithms and Modeling for the Web: Representation, reconstruction, and subgraph or motif discovery in Web-related graphs
• Security and Privacy: Privacy-enhancing technologies

Abstract

This work investigates the use of quantum resources in distributed storage systems. Consider an $(n,k,d)$ distributed storage system in which a file is stored across $n$ nodes such that any $k$ nodes suffice to reconstruct the file. When a node fails, any $d$ helper nodes transmit information to a newcomer to rebuild the system. In contrast to the classical repair, where helper nodes transmit classical bits, we allow them to send classical information over quantum channels to the newcomer. The newcomer then generates its storage by performing appropriate measurements on the received quantum states. In this setting, we fully characterize the fundamental tradeoff between storage and repair bandwidth (total communication cost). Compared to classical systems, the optimal storage--bandwidth tradeoff can be significantly improved with the enhancement of quantum entanglement shared only among the surviving nodes, particularly at the minimum-storage regenerating point. Remarkably, we show that when $d \geq 2k-2$, there exists an operating point at which \textit{both storage and repair bandwidth are simultaneously minimized}. This phenomenon breaks the tradeoff in the classical setting and reveals a fundamentally new regime enabled by quantum communication.

Problem

• distributed storage
• storage-bandwidth tradeoff
• quantum entanglement
• repair bandwidth
• minimum-storage regenerating

Innovation

• quantum entanglement
• distributed storage
• storage-bandwidth tradeoff
• minimum-storage regenerating
• quantum communication