Quantum networks will allow to implement communication tasks beyond the reach of their classical counterparts. A pressing and necessary issue for the design of quantum network protocols is the quantification of the rates at which these tasks can be performed. Here, we propose a simple recipe that yields efficiently computable lower and upper bounds on the maximum achievable rates. For this we make use of the max-flow min-cut theorem and its generalization to multi-commodity flows to obtain linear programs. We exemplify our recipe deriving the linear programs for bipartite settings, settings where multiple pairs of users obtain entanglement in parallel as well as multipartite settings, covering almost all known situations. We also make use of a generalization of the concept of paths between user pairs in a network to Steiner trees spanning a group of users wishing to establish Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states.
Recent experimental breakthroughs in satellite quantum communications have opened up the possibility of creating a global quantum internet using satellite links. This approach appears to be particularly viable in the near term, due to the lower attenuation of optical signals from satellite to ground, and due to the currently short coherence times of quantum memories. The latter prevents ground-based entanglement distribution using atmospheric or optical-fiber links at high rates over long distances. In this work, we propose a global-scale quantum internet consisting of a constellation of orbit…
We define metrics and measures to characterize the ratio of accessible quantum entanglement for complex network failures in the quantum Internet. A complex network failure models a situation in the quantum Internet in which a set of quantum nodes and a set of entangled connections become unavailable. A complex failure can cover a quantum memory failure, a physical link failure, an eavesdropping activity, or any other random physical failure scenario. Here, we define the terms entanglement accessibility ratio, cumulative probability of entanglement accessibility ratio, probabilistic reduction o…
We define a nature-inspired model for entanglement optimization in the quantum Internet. The optimization model aims to maximize the entanglement fidelity and relative entropy of entanglement for the entangled connections of the entangled network structure of the quantum Internet. The cost functions are subject of a minimization defined to cover and integrate the physical attributes of entanglement transmission, purification, and storage of entanglement in quantum memories. The method can be implemented with low complexity that allows a straightforward application in the quantum Internet and q…
Crucial problems of the quantum Internet are the derivation of stability properties of quantum repeaters and theory of entanglement rate maximization in an entangled network structure. The stability property of a quantum repeater entails that all incoming density matrices can be swapped with a target density matrix. The strong stability of a quantum repeater implies stable entanglement swapping with the boundness of stored density matrices in the quantum memory and the boundness of delays. Here, a theoretical framework of noise-scaled stability analysis and entanglement rate maximization is co…
Remote quantum entanglement can enable numerous applications including distributed quantum computation, secure communication, and precision sensing. In this paper, we consider how a quantum network-nodes equipped with limited quantum processing capabilities connected via lossy optical links-can distribute high-rate entanglement simultaneously between multiple pairs of users (multiple flows). We develop protocols for such quantum "repeater" nodes, which enable a pair of users to achieve large gains in entanglement rates over using a linear chain of quantum repeaters, by exploiting the diversity…
Quantum entanglement is a crucial element of establishing the entangled network structure of the quantum Internet. Here we define a method to achieve controlled entanglement access in the quantum Internet. The proposed model defines different levels of entanglement accessibility for the users of the quantum network. The path cost is determined by an integrated criterion on the entanglement fidelities between the quantum nodes and the probabilities of entangled connections of an entangled path. We reveal the connection between the number of available entangled paths and the accessible fidelity …
Quantum entanglement is a building block of the entangled quantum networks of the quantum Internet. A fundamental problem of the quantum Internet is entanglement distribution. Since quantum entanglement will be fundamental to any future quantum networking scenarios, the distribution mechanism of quantum entanglement is a critical and emerging issue in quantum networks. Here we define the method of opportunistic entanglement distribution for the quantum Internet. The opportunistic model defines distribution sets that are aimed to select those quantum nodes for which the cost function picks up a…
A fundamental concept of the quantum Internet is quantum entanglement. In a quantum Internet scenario where the legal users of the network have different priority levels or where a differentiation of entanglement availability between the users is a necessity, an entanglement availability service is essential. Here we define the entanglement availability differentiation (EAD) service for the quantum Internet. In the proposed EAD framework, the differentiation is either made in the amount of entanglement with respect to the relative entropy of entanglement associated with the legal users, or in …
We apply covert quantum communication based on entanglement generated from the Minkowski vacuum to the setting of quantum computation and quantum networks. Our approach hides the generation and distribution of entanglement in quantum networks by taking advantage of relativistic quantum effects. We devise a suite of covert quantum teleportation protocols that utilize the shared entanglement, local operations, and covert classical communication to transfer or process quantum information in stealth. As an application of our covert suite, we construct two prominent examples of measurement-based qu…
The rate at which quantum communication tasks can be performed using direct transmission is fundamentally hindered by the channel loss. Quantum repeaters allow, in principle, to overcome these limitations, but their introduction necessarily adds an additional layer of complexity to the distribution of entanglement. This additional complexity - along with the stochastic nature of processes such as entanglement generation, Bell swaps, and entanglement distillation - makes finding good quantum repeater schemes non-trivial. We develop an algorithm that can efficiently perform a heuristic optimisat…
Quantum entanglement distribution between remote nodes is key to many promising quantum applications. Existing mechanisms have mainly focused on improving throughput and fidelity via entanglement routing or single-node scheduling. This paper considers entanglement scheduling and distribution among many source-destination pairs with different requests over an entire quantum network topology. Two practical scenarios are considered. When requests do not have deadlines, we seek to minimize the average completion time of the communication requests. If deadlines are specified, we seek to maximize th…
Quantum Internet: Resource Estimation for Entanglement Routing
Airbus Central Research and Technology（空客中央研究与技术）；Institute for Quantum Physics and Center for Optical Quantum Technologies, University of Hamburg（汉堡大学量子物理研究所与光学量子技术中心）；The Hamburg Centre for Ultrafast Imaging（汉堡超快成像中心）
A quantum internet aims at harnessing networked quantum technologies, namely by distributing bipartite entanglement between distant nodes. However, multipartite entanglement between the nodes may empower the quantum internet for additional or better applications for communications, sensing, and computation. In this work, we present an algorithm for generating multipartite entanglement between different nodes of a quantum network with noisy quantum repeaters and imperfect quantum memories, where the links are entangled pairs. Our algorithm is optimal for GHZ states with 3 qubits, maximising sim…
Large-scale quantum networks with thousands of nodes require scalable network protocols and physical hardware to realize. In this work, we introduce packet switching as a new paradigm for quantum data transmission in both future and near-term quantum networks. We propose a classical-quantum data frame structure and explore methods of frame generation and processing. Further, we present conceptual designs for a quantum reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer to realize the proposed transmission scheme. Packet switching allows for a universal design for a next generation Internet where class…
Quantum Teleportation is the key communication functionality of the Quantum Internet, allowing the "transmission' of qubits without either the physical transfer of the particle storing the qubit or the violation of the quantum mechanical principles. Quantum teleportation is facilitated by the action of quantum entanglement, a somewhat counter-intuitive physical phenomenon with no direct counterpart in the classical word. As a consequence, the very concept of the classical communication system model has to be redesigned to account for the peculiarities of quantum teleportation. This re-design i…
Long-distance quantum communication via entanglement distribution is of great importance for the quantum internet. However, scaling up to such long distances has proved challenging due to the loss of photons, which grows exponentially with the distance covered. Quantum repeaters could in theory be used to extend the distances over which entanglement can be distributed, but in practice hardware quality is still lacking. Furthermore, it is generally not clear how an improvement in a certain repeater parameter, such as memory quality or attempt rate, impacts the overall network performance, rende…
Quantum interface links stationary qubits in quantum memory with flying photonic qubits in optical transmission channels and constitutes a critical element for future quantum internet. Entanglement of quantum interfaces is a key step for realization of quantum networks. Through heralded detection of photon interference, here we generate multipartite entanglement between 25 (or 9) individually addressable quantum interfaces in a multiplexed atomic quantum memory array and confirm genuine 22 (or 9) partite entanglement, respectively. Experimental entanglement of a record-high number of quantum i…
Quantum Fourier gates (QFG) constitute a family of quantum gates that result from an exact combination of the quantum Fourier transform (QFT) and the SWAP gate. As a direct consequence of this, the Feynman gate is a particular case of that family, just as the Bell states are particular cases of the states that are also derived from the aforementioned family. Besides, this new tool will allow us to demonstrate that teleportation is not something that happens exclusively thanks to some level of entanglement, but that it is also possible with an incomplete form of entanglement known as rough enta…
In this study, we present a technique based on the quantum Fourier transform (QFT) that allows the generation of disjoint sets of entangled particles, in such a way that particles of the same set are entangled with each other, while particles of different sets are completely independent. Several applications of this technique are implemented on three physical platforms, of 5 (Belem), 7 (Oslo), and 14 (Melbourne) qubits, of the international business machine (IBM Q) quantum experience program, where all these applications were specially selected due to their particular commitment to the future …
Quantum computing and quantum communication, have been greatly developed in recent years and expected to contribute to quantum internet technologies, including cloud quantum computing and unconditionally secure communication. However, long-distance quantum communication is challenging mainly because of optical fiber losses; quantum repeaters are indispensable for fiber-based transmission because unknown quantum states cannot be amplified with certainty. In this study, we demonstrate a versatile entanglement source in the telecom band for fiber-based quantum internet, which has a narrow linewid…
Quantum repeater networks are a fundamental of any future quantum Internet and long-distance quantum communications. The entangled quantum nodes can communicate through several different levels of entanglement, leading to a heterogeneous, multi-level network structure. The level of entanglement between the quantum nodes determines the hop distance and the probability of the existence of an entangled link in the network. Here, we define a decentralized routing for entangled quantum networks. The proposed method allows an efficient routing to find the shortest paths in entangled quantum networks…
Entanglement distribution is a prerequisite for several important quantum information processing and computing tasks, such as quantum teleportation, quantum key distribution, and distributed quantum computing. In this work, we focus on two-dimensional quantum networks based on optical quantum technologies using dual-rail photonic qubits for the building of a fail-safe quantum internet. We lay out a quantum network architecture for entanglement distribution between distant parties using a Bravais lattice topology, with the technological constraint that quantum repeaters equipped with quantum me…
Designing and implementing algorithms for medium and large scale quantum computers is not easy. In previous work we have suggested, and developed, the idea of using machine learning techniques to train a quantum system such that the desired process is "learned," thus obviating the algorithm design difficulty. This works quite well for small systems. But the goal is macroscopic physical computation. Here, we implement our learned pairwise entanglement witness on Microsoft's Q#, one of the commercially available gate model quantum computer simulators; we perform statistical analysis to determine…
We consider the problem of optimising the achievable EPR-pair distribution rate between multiple source-destination pairs in a quantum internet, where the repeaters may perform a probabilistic bell-state measurement and we may impose a minimum end-to-end fidelity as a requirement. We construct an efficient linear programming formulation that computes the maximum total achievable entanglement distribution rate, satisfying the end-to-end fidelity constraint in polynomial time (in the number of nodes in the network). We also propose an efficient algorithm that takes the output of the linear progr…
This paper shows how to construct quantum entanglement states of n qubits based on a self-stabilizing token ring algorithm. The entangled states can be applied to the fields of the quantum network, quantum Internet, distributed quantum computing, and quantum cloud. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to construct quantum entanglement based on the self-stabilizing algorithm. By the quantum circuit implementation based on the IBM Quantum Experience platform, it is demonstrated that the construction indeed can achieve specific n qubit entangled states, which in turn can be use…
We develop new routing algorithms for a quantum network with noisy quantum devices such that each can store a small number of qubits. We thereby consider two models for the operation of such a network. The first is a continuous model, in which entanglement between a subset of the nodes is produced continuously in the background. This can in principle allows the rapid creation of entanglement between more distant nodes using the already pre-generated entanglement pairs in the network. The second is an on-demand model, where entanglement production does not commence before a request is made. Our…
