As quantum network technologies develop, the need for teaching and engineering tools such as simulators and emulators rises. QuNetSim addresses this need. QuNetSim is a Python software framework that delivers an easy-to-use interface for simulating quantum networks at the network layer, which can be extended at little effort of the user to implement the corresponding link layer protocols. The goal of QuNetSim is to make it easier to investigate and test quantum networking protocols over various quantum network configurations and parameters. The framework incorporates many known quantum network protocols so that users can quickly build simulations using a quantum-networking toolbox in a few lines of code and so that beginners can easily learn to implement their own quantum networking protocols. Unlike most current tools, QuNetSim simulates with real time and is, therefore, well suited to control laboratory hardware. Here, we present a software design overview of QuNetSim and demonstrate examples of protocols implemented with it. We describe ongoing work, which uses QuNetSim as a library, and describe possible future directions for the development of QuNetSim.

We define the common randomness-assisted capacity of an arbitrarily varying wiretap channel (AVWC) when the eavesdropper is kept ignorant about the common randomness. We prove a multi-letter capacity formula for this model. We prove that, if enough common randomness is used, the capacity formula can be given a single-shot form again. We then consider the opposite extremal case, where no common randomness is available, and derive the capacity. It is known that the capacity of the system can be discontinuous under these circumstances. We prove here that it is still stable in the sense that it is continuous around its positivity points. We further prove that discontinuities can only arise if the legal link is symmetrizable and characterize the points where it is positive. These results shed new light on the design principles of communication systems with embedded security features. At last, we investigate the effect of super-activation of the message transmission capacity of AVWCs under the average error criterion. We give a complete characterization of those AVWCs that may be super-activated. The effect is thereby also related to the (conjectured) super-activation of the common randomness assisted capacity of AVWCs with an eavesdropper that gets to know the common randomness. Super-activation is based on the idea of wasting a few bits of non-secret messages in order to enable provably secret transmission of a large bulk of data, a concept that may prove to be of further importance in the design of communication systems. In this paper, we provide further insight into this phenomenon by providing a class of codes that is capacity achieving and does not convey any information to the eavesdropper.

We introduce and analyse a multiple-access channel with two senders and one receiver, in the presence of i.i.d. noise coming from the environment. Partial side information about the environmental states allows the senders to modulate their signals accordingly. An adversarial jammer with its own access to information on environmental states and the modulation signals can jam a fraction of the transmissions. Our results show that for many choices of the system parameters, entanglement shared between the two senders allows them to communicate at non-zero rates with the receiver, while for the same parameters the system forbids any communication without entanglement-assistance, even if the senders have access to common randomness (local correlations). A simplified model displaying a similar behaviour but with a compound channel instead of a jammer is outlined to introduce basic aspects of the modeling. We complement these results by demonstrating that there even exist model parameters for which entanglement-assisted communication is no longer possible, but a hypothetical use of nonlocal no-signalling correlations between Alice and Bob could enable them to communicate to Charlie again.

We study an analog of the well-known Gel'fand Pinsker channel which uses quantum states for the transmission of the data. We consider the case where both the sender's inputs to the channel and the channel states are to be taken from a finite set (the cq-channel with state information at the sender). We distinguish between causal and non-causal channel state information input by the sender. The receiver remains ignorant, throughout. We give a single-letter description of the capacity in the first case. In the second case we present two different regularized expressions for the capacity. It is an astonishing and unexpected result of our work that a simple change from causal to non-causal channel state information by the encoder causes the complexity of a numerical computation of the capacity formula to change from trivial to seemingly difficult. Still, even the non-single letter formula allows one to draw nontrivial conclusions, for example regarding the continuity of the capacity with respect to changes in the system parameters. The direct parts of both coding theorems are based on a special class of positive operator valued measurements (POVMs) which are derived from orthogonal projections onto certain representations of the symmetric groups. This approach supports a reasoning that is inspired by the classical method of types. In combination with the non-commutative union bound these POVMs yield an elegant method of proof for the direct part of the coding theorem in the first case.

We consider all-optical networks from a quantum perspective. We show that optimal quantum receivers allow a $\sim 57$ % decrease in energy consumption of all-optical amplifiers. Furthermore, we prove that quantum receivers allow for a logarithmic scaling of the system capacity with the number of pulses per second, while standard Shannon-type systems are limited by the transmit power. Based on our findings we argue for a new approach to optical communication network design, wherein in-line amplifiers are operated at very low gains and in conjunction with high-spectral-bandwidth fiber and a quantum receiver, enhancing data transmission in a practically relevant quantum limit.