Abstract
Information theory establishes the ultimate limits on performance for noisy communication systems. Accurate models of physical communication devices must include quantum effects, but these typically make the theory intractable. As a result, communication capacities - the maximum possible rates of data transmission - are not known, even for transmission between two users connected by an electromagnetic waveguide with Gaussian noise. Here we present an exactly solvable model of communication with a fully quantum electromagnetic field. This gives explicit expressions for all point-to-point capacities of noisy quantum channels, with implications for quantum key distribution and fibre-optic communications. We also develop a theory of quantum communication networks by solving some rudimentary models including broadcast and multiple-access channels. We compare the predictions of our model with the orthodox Gaussian model and in all cases find agreement to within a few bits. At high signal-to-noise ratios, our simple model captures the relevant physics while remaining amenable to exact solution. © 2013 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.