A Comprehensive Protocol Stack for Quantum Networks with a Global Entanglement Module

2025-09-20

AI Summary

Current large-scale quantum networks lack a full-stack protocol suite capable of dynamically adapting to diverse applications—including entanglement pre-distribution, purification, and multipartite entanglement—while bridging the gap between static planning and real-time operation. To address this, we propose the first integrated protocol stack for large-scale quantum networks, centered on the Global Entanglement Module (GEM). GEM establishes a network-wide, unified view of entanglement resources via distributed synchronization, and enables connection-agnostic, real-time awareness and dynamic scheduling through adaptive heuristic algorithms and lightweight, score-driven resource management. Experimental evaluation demonstrates that our approach improves entanglement generation rate by 20% over non-adaptive global-optimal baselines, and achieves more than a twofold performance gain over state-of-the-art connectionless methods, while significantly enhancing latency and robustness.

Technology Category

• Machine Learning: Quantum Machine Learning
• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Scheduling under Uncertainty
• Search and Optimization: Distributed Search

Application Category

• Graph Algorithms and Modeling for the Web: Efficient manipulation of static and dynamic Web-related graphs
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Incentives in network design for Web infrastructures and ecosystems
• Security and Privacy: Large-scale security measurements

Abstract

The development of large-scale quantum networks requires not only advances in physical-layer technologies but also a comprehensive protocol stack that integrates communication, control, and resource management across all layers. We present the first such protocol stack, which introduces a Global Entanglement Module (GEM) that maintains a consistent, network-wide view of entanglement resources through distributed synchronization strategies. By enabling real-time adaptive execution of entanglement distribution plans, GEM bridges the gap between static planning and dynamic operation. The stack naturally supports pre-distributed entanglement, purification, and multi-partite state generation, making it applicable to a broad range of quantum networking applications. We design and evaluate multiple adaptive heuristics for real-time execution and show that a lightweight scoring-based strategy consistently achieves the best performance, improving entanglement generation rates by about 20% over a globally optimal but non-adaptive fixed-tree baseline and achieving more than a two-fold improvement relative to recent connectionless approaches. Across all scenarios-including predistribution and fidelity analysis-GEM consistently enables lower latency and robust operation. These results establish a practical pathway toward scalable, adaptive quantum internet systems.

Problem

• Developing a comprehensive protocol stack for large-scale quantum networks
• Bridging the gap between static planning and dynamic quantum network operation
• Enabling real-time adaptive execution of entanglement distribution plans

Innovation

• Global Entanglement Module for network-wide resource view
• Real-time adaptive execution of entanglement distribution plans
• Lightweight scoring-based strategy improving generation rates