{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,18]],"date-time":"2026-08-18T11:24:11Z","timestamp":1787052251793,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":44,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,18]],"date-time":"2026-08-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1787011200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100000844","name":"European Space Agency","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["AO\/1-12480\/24\/NL\/LF"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["AO\/1-12480\/24\/NL\/LF"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100000844","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"award":["AO\/1-12480\/24\/NL\/LF"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["AO\/1-12480\/24\/NL\/LF"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/03wd9za21","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Entropy"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Federated learning enables multiple organizations to collaboratively analyze data while retaining local control over their datasets, making it attractive for applications such as healthcare. Distributed quantum computing provides a natural framework for such workflows, allowing geographically separated quantum processors to execute joint computations using shared entanglement while preserving data privacy. In this work, we investigate the feasibility of satellite-enabled distributed quantum computing for federated quantum learning. As a representative application, we consider a distributed distance-based quantum classifier in which multiple parties contribute local data through quantum operations. To support this application, we develop a hybrid space-ground quantum network architecture in which satellites distribute entanglement between distant ground stations. The communication layer is combined with a noise-aware neutral-atom processor model, enabling a system-level analysis that captures both network and hardware constraints. Simulation results across varying network sizes, feature dimensions, and coherence regimes show that classifier performance is jointly determined by communication resources, processor noise, and data representation. In low-coherence regimes, decoherence destroys the classifier\u2019s discriminative signal, whereas high-coherence regimes reveal limitations arising from feature-space conditioning and feature redundancy. These results demonstrate that satellite quantum networks could support distributed quantum learning over long distances, while highlighting the importance of coherence time, entanglement-distribution performance, and learning-aware data encoding for future large-scale deployments.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/e28080924","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,18]],"date-time":"2026-08-18T10:22:52Z","timestamp":1787048572000},"page":"924","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Federated Quantum Machine Learning over Satellite Networks: Toward Scalable Distributed Quantum Classification"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"28","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0004-6306-6581","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Juan Carlos","family":"Boschero","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Applied Cryptography & Quantum Algorithms, Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research, Anna van Buerenplein 1, 2595 DA Den Haag, The Netherlands"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0002-9220-1303","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Rares Adrian","family":"Oancea","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Applied Cryptography & Quantum Algorithms, Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research, Anna van Buerenplein 1, 2595 DA Den Haag, The Netherlands"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6328-1135","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Luca","family":"Mazzarella","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Quantum Technologies, Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research, Stieltjesweg 1, 2628 CK Delft, The Netherlands"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2976-8294","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hugo","family":"Doeleman","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Quantum Technologies, Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research, Stieltjesweg 1, 2628 CK Delft, The Netherlands"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6342-8157","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Simon","family":"Cramer","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Applied Cryptography & Quantum Algorithms, Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research, Anna van Buerenplein 1, 2595 DA Den Haag, The Netherlands"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,18]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1023","DOI":"10.1038\/nature07127","article-title":"The quantum internet","volume":"453","author":"Kimble","year":"2008","journal-title":"Nature"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"eaam9288","DOI":"10.1126\/science.aam9288","article-title":"Quantum internet: A vision for the road ahead","volume":"362","author":"Wehner","year":"2018","journal-title":"Science"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"137","DOI":"10.1109\/MNET.001.1900092","article-title":"Quantum Internet: Networking Challenges in Distributed Quantum Computing","volume":"34","author":"Cacciapuoti","year":"2020","journal-title":"IEEE Netw."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Boschero, J.C., Neumann, N.M.P., van der Schoot, W., Sijpesteijn, T., and Wezeman, R. 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