The idea of a quantum Internet makes a lot of ears perk up and even prompts a few wistful sighs, but the technology that many thought was still fairly far away has actually been up and running at New Mexico's Los Alamos National Lab for the last two and a half years, according to reports from the lab.

The Los Alamos approach to a quantum Internet is unusual, but at last report, so far very effective. In Los Alamos' version, a hub-and-spoke network approach is used to create the quantum Internet effect, sending messages from the various spokes to the central hub and then out along the target spoke to send the message. Interestingly, this approach uses much of what we know so far about the quantum Internet concept to produce top-notch message security.

The idea of a quantum Internet is as prized as it is difficult to engineer. In a quantum Internet, reportedly, the mere act of measuring a quantum object--like a photon, for example--inherently changes the object in question. Anyone who tries to snoop on a quantum object, therefore, renders the object changed and makes it clear as day that snooping was done. In a quantum network, users can send a message to one user, and the user can receive that message and send back a counter-message, carrying on a conversation in the conventional fashion. That opens the doors for what's known as "quantum cryptography", which allows for messaging under perfectly secure conditions.

But this same method that renders undetected snooping impossible also hurts the ability to use current technology in a quantum network. Sending a message from point A to point B is the ideal, but trying to include points C and beyond--as many conventional routers do--is where the problems occur. Changing the routing information inherently changes the message.

However, stepping in with the hub-and-spoke affair, as Los Alamos is doing, changes the picture. Now, messages go into the hub, where the message is received, converted to conventional bits, then reconverted to quantum matter to go off along the target spoke. If the hub remains inviolate, then the spokes enjoy perfect security, as intercepting the message along either spoke, kills the message. But a hub and spoke network's Achilles heel is the same as it ever was: the more spokes on the network, the more difficult it becomes for the hub to handle the number of connections. But as the technology advances--Los Alamos is reportedly working on a set of plug-and-play modules that can take advantage of quantum technology--the issues may ultimately fall apart. Given that Los Alamos has successfully run such a network for the last two years, it's a safe bet that this will carry on for some time.

But given the research going on in steering these bits so that conventional technology can use them--with steering, the routing doesn't change the message--Los Alamos' hub-and-spoke approach may well not have long until it's obsolete, though just how long it has is strictly a matter of conjecture.

Still, it's clear that this kind of technology will be prized by privacy buffs everywhere--though governments around the world likely will not care for it unless some kind of backdoor is established--and with clear evidence that the technology works, it may well only be a matter of time before all our e-mail arrives in quantum fashion.