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arXiv:2511.16745

White Paper on Quantum Internet Computer Science Research Challenges

Thomas R. Beauchamp, Scarlett Gauthier, Stephanie Wehner

quant-phSubmitted Nov 20, 2025• Announced Nov 24, 2025• 0 citations
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Abstract

The aim of a quantum network is to enable the generation of end-to-end entangled links between end nodes of the network, so that they can execute quantum network applications. To facilitate this, it is desirable to have robust control of the network in order to be able to provide a reliable service to the end nodes. In recent work arXiv:2503.12582, we proposed a modular control architecture for a generate-when-request type network. This control architecture enables quantum network applications to be executed on end nodes running a modern operating system such as QNodeOS arXiv:2407.18306. In that work, we performed an evaluation of our architecture based on a proof-of-concept implementation. In the course of performing this evaluation, we discovered many outstanding questions and challenges. These relate not only to implementing our specific control architecture, but also to the design of any quantum network control architecture. Here, we describe some outstanding questions and challenges, discuss possible solutions, and identify where existing protocols require adaptation or new protocols must be designed.

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A quantum network's purpose is to enable users to execute applications on end nodes. This requires the network to provide the service of creating entangled links between those nodes. Users of mature networks, such as the internet or the telephone network expect accepted service demands to be met reliably. We first define reliability requirements that extend classical computer network concepts to quantum network service delivery. We then introduce Arqon, a suite of control applications designed to deliver reliable service in centrally controlled quantum networks. We demonstrate through both analytic and numerical evaluation that Arqon satisfies all reliability requirements for accepted demands. These evaluations consider static network topologies. We provide a complete Python implementation and perform complexity analysis showing that admission control scales as $O(k^3)$ in the number of incoming demands $k$ and schedule computation scales as ${O(N^3)}$ in the number of accepted demands to schedule $N$.

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Quantum network simulators are essential for the design and evaluation of quantum network architectures and protocols. However, developing an effective simulator is particularly challenging due to the stateful and non-local nature of quantum entanglement, which requires persistent state awareness and tight in-network coordination. Moreover, because quantum communication protocols inherently rely on classical signaling, a realistic simulator must seamlessly integrate classical and quantum communication primitives within a unified framework. In this work, we present$Q 2 N S$, a modular and extensible quantum network simulation framework built on top of ns-3. The architectural design of$Q 2 N S$enforces a clear separation of concerns between the operational functionalities of modules and entities and the overarching control logic, enabling easy adaptation to heterogeneous and rapidly evolving Quantum Internet paradigms while leveraging ns-3's mature classical networking stack. Additionally,$\boldsymbol{Q} 2 N S$includes a dedicated visualization tool to facilitate developing an intuitive understanding of entanglement-based quantum networking. This design enables accurate modeling of entanglement dynamics and protocol control logic, by providing a flexible, open, and scalable platform for advancing the Quantum Internet research.

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The creation of the future quantum Internet requires the development of new systems, architectures, and communications protocols. As a matter of fact, the optical fiber technology is affected by extremely high losses; thus, the deployment of a quantum satellite network (QSN) composed of quantum satellite repeaters (QSRs) in low Earth orbit would make it possible to overcome these attenuation problems. For these reasons, we consider the design of an ad hoc quantum satellite backbone based on the Software-Defined Networking (SDN) paradigm with a modular two-tier Control Plane (CP). The first tier of the CP is embedded into a Master Control Station (MCS) on the ground, which coordinates the entire constellation and performs the management of the CP integrated into the constellation itself. This second tier is responsible for entanglement generation and management on the selected path. In addition to defining the SDN architecture in all its components, we present a possible protocol to generate entanglement on the end-to-end (E2E) path. Furthermore, we evaluate the performance of the developed protocol in terms of the latency required to establish entanglement between two ground stations connected via the quantum satellite backbone.

Future Internet•Jul 30, 2021•14 citations
The aim of a quantum network is to enable the generation of end-to-end entangled links between end nodes of the network, so that they can execute quantum network applications. To facilitate this, it is desirable to have robust control of the network in order to be able to provide a reliable service to the end nodes. In recent work arXiv:2503.12582, we proposed a modular control architecture for a generate-when-request type network. This control architecture enables quantum network applications to be executed on end nodes running a modern operating system such as QNodeOS arXiv:2407.18306. In that work, we performed an evaluation of our architecture based on a proof-of-concept implementation. In the course of performing this evaluation, we discovered many outstanding questions and challenges. These relate not only to implementing our specific control architecture, but also to the design of any quantum network control architecture. Here, we describe some outstanding questions and challenges, discuss possible solutions, and identify where existing protocols require adaptation or new protocols must be designed.
The aim of a quantum network is to enable users to successfully execute applications on their quantum end nodes. Users of mature networks, such as the internet, the postal network, or the telephone network expect their demands for service to be satisfied reliably. Here, we present an extended abstract introducing Arqon, a suite of control applications capable of delivering reliable service to end nodes. We define a full set of reliability requirements and demonstrate through a numeric evaluation that Arqon is capable of simultaneously satisfying all requirements.
A quantum network's purpose is to enable users to execute applications on end nodes. This requires the network to provide the service of creating entangled links between those nodes. Users of mature networks, such as the internet or the telephone network expect accepted service demands to be met reliably. We first define reliability requirements that extend classical computer network concepts to quantum network service delivery. We then introduce Arqon, a suite of control applications designed to deliver reliable service in centrally controlled quantum networks. We demonstrate through both analytic and numerical evaluation that Arqon satisfies all reliability requirements for accepted demands. These evaluations consider static network topologies. We provide a complete Python implementation and perform complexity analysis showing that admission control scales as O(k3)O(k^3)O(k3) in the number of incoming demands kkk and schedule computation scales as O(N3){O(N^3)}O(N3) in the number of accepted demands to schedule NNN.
We propose an architecture for scheduling network operations enabling the end-to-end generation of entanglement according to user demand. The main challenge solved by this architecture is to allow for the integration of a network schedule with the execution of quantum programs running on processing end nodes in order to realise quantum network applications. A key element of this architecture is the definition of an entanglement packet to meet application requirements on near-term quantum networks where the lifetimes of the qubits stored at the end nodes are limited. Our architecture is fully modular and hardware agnostic, and defines a framework for further research on specific components that can now be developed independently of each other. In order to evaluate our architecture, we realise a proof of concept implementation on a simulated 6-node network in a star topology. We show our architecture facilitates the execution of quantum network applications, and that robust admission control is required to maintain quality of service. Finally, we comment on potential bottlenecks in our architecture and provide suggestions for future improvements.
Quantum network simulators are essential for the design and evaluation of quantum network architectures and protocols. However, developing an effective simulator is particularly challenging due to the stateful and non-local nature of quantum entanglement, which requires persistent state awareness and tight in-network coordination. Moreover, because quantum communication protocols inherently rely on classical signaling, a realistic simulator must seamlessly integrate classical and quantum communication primitives within a unified framework. In this work, we presentQ2NSQ 2 N SQ2NS, a modular and extensible quantum network simulation framework built on top of ns-3. The architectural design ofQ2NSQ 2 N SQ2NSenforces a clear separation of concerns between the operational functionalities of modules and entities and the overarching control logic, enabling easy adaptation to heterogeneous and rapidly evolving Quantum Internet paradigms while leveraging ns-3's mature classical networking stack. Additionally,Q2NS\boldsymbol{Q} 2 N SQ2NSincludes a dedicated visualization tool to facilitate developing an intuitive understanding of entanglement-based quantum networking. This design enables accurate modeling of entanglement dynamics and protocol control logic, by providing a flexible, open, and scalable platform for advancing the Quantum Internet research.
The goal of future quantum networks is to enable new internet applications that are impossible to achieve using only classical communication1–3. Up to now, demonstrations of quantum network applications4–6 and functionalities7–12 on quantum processors have been performed in ad hoc software that was specific to the experimental setup, programmed to perform one single task (the application experiment) directly into low-level control devices using expertise in experimental physics. Here we report on the design and implementation of an architecture capable of executing quantum network applications on quantum processors in platform-independent high-level software. We demonstrate the capability of the architecture to execute applications in high-level software by implementing it as a quantum network operating system—QNodeOS—and executing test programs, including a delegated computation from a client to a server13 on two quantum network nodes based on nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centres in diamond14,15. We show how our architecture allows us to maximize the use of quantum network hardware by multitasking different applications. Our architecture can be used to execute programs on any quantum processor platform corresponding to our system model, which we illustrate by demonstrating an extra driver for QNodeOS for a trapped-ion quantum network node based on a single 40Ca+ atom16. Our architecture lays the groundwork for computer science research in quantum network programming and paves the way for the development of software that can bring quantum network technology to society. A new quantum operating system architecture is described that is capable of executing applications on quantum networks in high-level software, which is a step towards bringing quantum network technology to society.
The creation of the future quantum Internet requires the development of new systems, architectures, and communications protocols. As a matter of fact, the optical fiber technology is affected by extremely high losses; thus, the deployment of a quantum satellite network (QSN) composed of quantum satellite repeaters (QSRs) in low Earth orbit would make it possible to overcome these attenuation problems. For these reasons, we consider the design of an ad hoc quantum satellite backbone based on the Software-Defined Networking (SDN) paradigm with a modular two-tier Control Plane (CP). The first tier of the CP is embedded into a Master Control Station (MCS) on the ground, which coordinates the entire constellation and performs the management of the CP integrated into the constellation itself. This second tier is responsible for entanglement generation and management on the selected path. In addition to defining the SDN architecture in all its components, we present a possible protocol to generate entanglement on the end-to-end (E2E) path. Furthermore, we evaluate the performance of the developed protocol in terms of the latency required to establish entanglement between two ground stations connected via the quantum satellite backbone.