A Quantum Frequency-Domain Framework for Image Transmission with Three-Qubit Error Correction

Quantum communication enables high-fidelity image transmission but is vulnerable to channel noise, and while advanced quantum error correction (QEC) can reduce such effects, its complexity and time-domain dependence limit practical efficiency. This paper presents a novel, low-complexity, and noise-resilient quantum image transmission framework that operates in the frequency domain using the quantum Fourier transform (QFT) combined with the three-qubit QEC code. In the proposed system, input images are first source-encoded (JPEG/HEIF) and mapped to quantum states using single-qubit superposition encoding. Three-qubit QEC is then applied for channel protection, effectively safeguarding the encoded data against quantum errors. The channel-encoded quantum data are subsequently transformed via QFT for transmission over noisy quantum channels. At the receiver, the inverse QFT recovers the frequency-domain representation, after which three-qubit error correction, quantum decoding, and corresponding source decoding are performed to reconstruct the image. Results are analyzed using bit error rate (BER), peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), structural similarity index measure (SSIM), and universal quality index (UQI). Experimental results show that the proposed quantum frequency-domain approach achieves up to 4 dB channel SNR gain over equivalent quantum time-domain methods and up to 10 dB over an equivalent-bandwidth classical communication system, regardless of the image format. These findings highlight the practical advantages of integrating QFT-based transmission with lightweight QEC, offering an efficient, scalable, and noise-tolerant solution for future quantum communication networks.