A fundamental concept of the quantum Internet is quantum entanglement. The aim of our entanglement concentration service is to provide reliable, high-quality entanglement for a dedicated set of quantum nodes in the quantum Internet.
Abstract Here, we define the entanglement concentration service for the quantum Internet. The aim of the entanglement concentration service is to provide reliable, high-quality entanglement for a dedicated set of strongly connected quantum nodes in the quantum Internet. The objectives of the service are to simultaneously maximize the entanglement throughput of all entangled connections and to minimize the hop distance between the high-priority quantum nodes. We propose a method for the resolution of the entanglement concentration problem and provide a performance analysis.
In a classical network the link layer is responsible for transferring
a datagram between two nodes that are connected by a single link,
possibly including switches. In a quantum network however, the link
layer will need to provide a robust entanglement generation service
between two quantum nodes which are connected by a quantum link. This
service can be used by higher layers to produce entanglement between
distant nodes or to perform other operations such as qubit
transmission, without full knowledge of the underlying hardware and
its parameters. This draft defines what can be expected from the
service provided by a link layer for a Quantum Network and defines an
interface between higher layers and the link layer.
Nowadays, the classical Internet is mainly envisioned as the underlying communication infrastructure of the Quantum Internet, aimed at providing services such as signaling and coordination messages. However, the interplay between the classical and the quantum Internet is complex and its understanding is pivotal for an effective design of the Quantum Internet protocol stack. The aim of the article is to shed light on this interplay, by highlighting the fact that such an interplay is indeed bidirectional rather than unidirectional. The Quantum Internet exhibits the potential of supporting and even enhancing classical Internet functionalities.
In the coming years, quantum networks will allow quantum applications to thrive thanks to the new opportunities offered by end-to-end entanglement of qubits on remote hosts via quantum repeaters. On a geographical scale, this will lead to the dawn of the quantum internet. While a fullblown deployment is yet to come, the research community is already working on a variety of individual enabling technologies and solutions. In this article, with the guidance of extensive simulations, we take a broader view and investigate the problems of quality of service (QoS) and provisioning in the context of quantum networks, which are very different from their counterparts in classical data networks due to some of their fundamental properties. Our work leads the way toward a new class of studies that will allow the research community to better understand the challenges of quantum networks and their potential commercial exploitation.
The Quantum Internet - i.e. an heterogeneous network enabling quantum communications among remote quantum nodes by leveraging on quantum transmission channels in synergy with classical transmission channels - is attracting worldwide academic and industrial interest [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7], given its potential of enabling applications with no counterpart in the classical Internet [8]. Indeed, the Quantum Internet, by transmitting qubits and by distributing entangled quantum states, comes with a whole new dazzling functionalities [9, 10].
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 local minimum. The cost function utilizes the error patterns of the local quantum memories and the predictability of the evolution of the entanglement fidelities. Our method provides efficient entanglement distributing with respect to the actual statuses of the local quantum memories of the node pairs. The model provides an easily-applicable, moderate-complexity solution for high-fidelity entanglement distribution in experimental quantum Internet scenarios.