With the development of quantum technologies, the quantum internet has demonstrated unique applications beyond the classical internet and has been investigated extensively in recent years. In the construction of conventional internet software, the protocol stack is the core architecture for coordinating modules. How to design a protocol stack for the quantum internet is a challenging problem. In this paper, we systematically review the latest developments in quantum internet protocols from the perspective of protocol stack layering. By summarizing and analyzing the progress in each layer’s protocols, we reveal the current research status and connections among the layers. Our work provides readers with a comprehensive understanding of the quantum internet and can help support researchers focusing on a single layer to better define the functions that the layer should possess and optimize related protocols. This approach enables all layers to work better together based on an understanding of the other layers.
With the development of quantum technologies, the quantum internet has demonstrated unique applications beyond the classical internet and has been investigated extensively in recent years. In the construction of conventional internet software, the protocol stack is the core architecture for coordinating modules. How to design a protocol stack for the quantum internet is a challenging problem. In this paper, we systematically review the latest developments in quantum internet protocols from the perspective of protocol stack layering. By summarizing and analyzing the progress in each layer’s protocols, we reveal the current research status and connections among the layers. Our work provides readers with a comprehensive understanding of the quantum internet and can help support researchers focusing on a single layer to better define the functions that the layer should possess and optimize related protocols. This approach enables all layers to work better together based on an understanding of the other layers.
As quantum network hardware has made significant progress in recent years, there is an increasing focus on enhancing both the infrastructure and the corresponding software of quantum networks. To establish a comprehensive quantum network, two key stacks are employed: the quantum node stack and the quantum control stack. In this survey, we first clearly distinguish between the quantum network and the quantum internet. Then we provide a comprehensive survey of the state-of-the-art and use cases for quantum network stacks. Regarding the quantum control stack, we categorize it into traditional and programmable approaches. We further explore the current research challenges associated with each method to inspire ongoing investigation.
In the recent years, and with the rapid development in the field of Quantum Internet (QI) and its applications, and as a result of this development, researchers showed the difference between the traditional internet and the QI. The present study discusses more about the concept of the QI, especially the functionalities, protocols, and applications of QI. This study gives researchers and readers a deeper knowledge about the QI in general and its applications in particular, and how these applications have helped the QI to be better than the current internet in the coming years through more secure and provide a high and optimizations of performance, more reliability, high speed when implementing, and fewer errors.
The emergence of quantum networks promises revolutionary advancements in secure communication, computational power, and information processing. This paper provides insights into the essential components and architecture of quantum networks. We systematically examine each layer of the quantum protocol stack, from the physical layer responsible for qubit transmission and entanglement generation to the transport layer ensuring reliable qubit communication, up to the application layer enabling quantum key distribution and quantum computing applications. In this work, we introduce the E-QNet framework, an entanglement-assisted quantum network protocol stack designed to facilitate quantum communication. Key devices such as quantum transceivers, entanglement sources, quantum memories, quantum repeaters, and quantum routers are analyzed in the context of their specific roles and functionalities. We draw parallels with classical network architecture, highlighting both the unique challenges and novel solutions inherent in quantum networking. By elucidating the interplay between hardware devices and protocol layers, this article provides a comprehensive overview of the current state and future directions in quantum network design, offering valuable insights for researchers and engineers in the field. This work aims to contribute to the foundational understanding required for the development and implementation of robust quantum networks.
The advanced notebooks, mobile phones, and internet applications in today’s world that we use are all entrenched in classical communication bits of zeros and ones. Classical internet has laid its foundation originating from the amalgamation of mathematics and Claude Shannon’s theory of information. However, today’s internet technology is a playground for eavesdroppers. This poses a serious challenge to various applications that rely on classical internet technology, and it has motivated the researchers to switch to new technologies that are fundamentally more secure. By exploring the quantum effects, researchers paved the way into quantum networks that provide security, privacy, and range of capabilities such as quantum computation, communication, and metrology. The realization of Quantum Internet (QI) requires quantum communication between various remote nodes through quantum channels guarded by quantum cryptographic protocols. Such networks rely upon quantum bits (qubits) that can simultaneously take the value of zeros and ones. Due to the extraordinary properties of qubits such as superposition, entanglement, and teleportation, it gives an edge to quantum networks over traditional networks in many ways. At the same time, transmitting qubits over long distances is a formidable task and extensive research is going on satellite-based quantum communication, which will deliver breakthroughs for physically realizing QI in near future. In this paper, QI functionalities, technologies, applications and open challenges have been extensively surveyed to help readers gain a basic understanding of the infrastructure required for the development of the global QI.
Quantum computing technology, both hardware and software, has witnessed significant growth recently because of research breakthroughs and industry developments. The swift pace of progress in quantum computing is due to a higher relative potential compared to its classical computing counterpart. Quantum computing has various advantages, including computational power, speed, and security. In the context of efficient communication, current quantum technology offers a glimpse into the future realization of a Quantum Internet (QI). Similar to the classical internet, a QI consists of interconnected layers; however, it differs by utilizing quantum principles, software, and hardware. This poster paper will discuss the primary layers of a QI, highlight the communication flow, and then conclude by identifying challenges in realization.
Quantum mechanics shows that if one is able to generate and manipulate entanglement over a distance, one is able to perform certain tasks which are impossible using only classical communication. Classical communication refers to what is used in the Internet of today. A quantum internet would therefore bring new capabilities to our highly connected world. These capabilities both involve (1) the ability to perform tasks with are provably impossible in the current Internet, such as unconditionally secure communication, and (2) the ability to perform certain tasks much more efficient, such as distributed (quantum) computing or extending the baseline of telescopes. To be able to build a quantum internet, two main components are needed: (i) hardware that can store, manipulate and entangle qubits and (ii) a software stack to control the hardware. The core task of both of these is to generate entanglement to be used by applications. In this thesis we focus on the latter, i.e. the development of software and protocols that enable entanglement generation using capable hardware. To enable a certain application, one can certainly, in theory, manually specify each operation the hardware should perform, involving micro-wave pulses, lasers etc. However, in practice this is not feasible, if not to say impossible, due to the complexity of the operations needed, especially in a distributed system such as a quantum network. What is needed is a software stack, which can help with abstracting complexity away in multiple layers. This allows for someone to program a protocol in one layer without knowing all the details of the lower layers. In particular, one can abstract away the hardware details, in order to make higher-layer protocols and applications hardware-agnostic. Therefore, to be able to build a universal, efficient and scalable quantum internet, a software stack is crucial. In chapter 2 we start discussing the networking part of a software stack. Namely, we introduce a network stack for a quantum internet, drawing parallels to the IP/TCP-suite of the classical Internet. We continue with proposing a service and interface of the lowest layer of the network stack: the link layer. The link layer is here responsible for generating entanglement between nodes in a quantum network which are directly connected by a quantum link, i.e. a fiber cable. When developing a protocol or application it is very useful to be able to run it. Both to see if the intended ideas make sense and also to check that the implementation is actually correct. Currently we do not have quantum hardware that exposes a full-fledge API that can be used to execute applications. For this reason, it is very useful to be able to instead simulate the hardware in a way that exposes the same API as the hardware being developed. In chapter 3 we introduce SimulaQron for this exact purpose. Any application of a quantum internet will need entanglement in one way or another. However, entanglement is generally hard to generate and is usually the bottleneck when executing an application. We would therefore like to make use of the generated entanglement in the most optimal way. To be able to do this we need to understand how entanglement can be transformed and distributed in a quantum network. We study the entanglement of a particular class of states called graph states in chapters 4 to 9 and how these states can be transformed in a quantum network.