Methods, apparatus, and computer program products for quantum communications and quantum information processing are provided. An example method includes determining a received state of a qubit received via a quantum communication link where the received state includes one or more properties of the received qubit. The method further accesses a transmitted state of the qubit where the transmitted state includes one or more properties of the qubit as transmitted. The method continues by comparing the one or more properties of the qubit in the received state with the one or more properties of the qubit in the transmitted state. Finally, the method detects a condition of the quantum communication link based on the comparison between the received state and the transmitted state. In doing so, the embodiments operate to characterize the noise level, security, etc. of a quantum communication interconnect, link, or channel.