As quantum networking experiments move from laboratory experiments to larger scale deployments, integrated control software becomes essential for managing complex interactions between the numerous distributed resources involved. While a number of laboratory-scale control systems have been developed for specific quantum platform demonstrations, an openly available and general solution for operating quantum networks has not emerged. With the QUANT-NET Control Plane (QNCP), we introduce a model-based, extensible control plane implementation that offers a framework for enabling network-wide orchestration in quantum information network environments. QCNP provides a quantum network data model, resource management, communication primitives, and a plugin interface for defining orchestration and protocol interactions across distributed quantum network devices and services. This paper describes the design and architecture of QNCP, its implementation, and opportunities for extensibility and deployment.
As quantum networking experiments move from laboratory experiments to larger scale deployments, integrated control software becomes essential for managing complex interactions between the numerous distributed resources involved. While a number of laboratory-scale control systems have been developed for specific quantum platform demonstrations, an openly available and general solution for operating quantum networks has not emerged. With the QUANT-NET Control Plane (QNCP), we introduce a model-based, extensible control plane implementation that offers a framework for enabling network-wide orchestration in quantum information network environments. QCNP provides a quantum network data model, resource management, communication primitives, and a plugin interface for defining orchestration and protocol interactions across distributed quantum network devices and services. This paper describes the design and architecture of QNCP, its implementation, and opportunities for extensibility and deployment.
ABSTRACT Quantum networks development is crucial to realizing a production‐grade network that can support distributed sensing, secure communication, and utility‐scale quantum computation. However, the transition from laboratory demonstration to deployable networks requires software implementations of architectures and protocols tailored to the unique constraints of quantum systems. This paper reviews the current state of software implementations for quantum networks, organized around a three‐plane abstraction of infrastructure, logical, and control/service planes. We cover software for both designing quantum network protocols (e.g., SeQUeNCe, QuISP, and NetSquid) and operating testbeds, with a focus on essential control/service plane functions such as entanglement, topology, and resource management, in a proposed taxonomy. Our review highlights a persistent gap between theoretical architecture and protocol proposals and their realization in simulators or testbeds, particularly in dynamic topology and network management. We conclude by outlining open challenges and proposing a roadmap for developing scalable software architectures to enable hybrid, large‐scale quantum networks.
Quantum network control is a major research area of the QUANT-NET project. We strive to build a quantum network control plane to orchestrate and manage all the physicallayer technologies, and to explore what a quantum network control plane should look like in the future, so as to automate high-rate and high-fidelity entanglement generation, distribution, and storage in an efficient, reliable, and cost-effective way. To these ends, we have designed a two-level control framework for quantum networks. Within such a framework, a two-level scheduler has been implemented to support synchronous time slot scheduling, network-wide non-real-time control, and nodewide real-time control. This two-level control framework and the scheduler are being deployed and evaluated in the QUANTNET testbed. Enabled by this two-level control framework and the scheduler, several basic quantum network operations have been automated in the testbed, which include automated quantum node calibration and on-demand single photon generation. In this paper, we present this two-level control framework, the scheduler, and the automated quantum network operations that have been enabled in the QUANT-NET testbed.
The realization of the Quantum Internet promises transformative capabilities in secure communication, distributed quantum computing, and high-precision metrology. However, transitioning from laboratory experiments to a scalable, multi-tenant network utility introduces deep orchestration challenges. Current development is often siloed within physics communities, prioritizing hardware, while the classical networking community lacks architectural models to manage fragile quantum resources. This tutorial bridges this divide by providing a network-centric view of quantum networking. We dismantle idealized assumptions in current simulators to address the "simulation-reality gap," recasting them as explicit control-plane constraints. To bridge this gap, we establish Software-Defined Quantum Networking (SDQN) as a prerequisite for scale, prioritizing a symbiotic, dual-plane architecture where classical control dictates quantum data flow. Specifically, we synthesize reference models for SDQN and the Quantum Network Operating System (QNOS) for hardware abstraction, and adapt a Quantum Network Utility Maximization (Q-NUM) framework as a unifying mathematical lens for engineers to reason about trade-offs between entanglement routing, scheduling, and fidelity. Furthermore, we analyze Distributed Quantum AI (DQAI) over imperfect networks as a case study, illustrating how physical constraints such as probabilistic stragglers and decoherence dictate application-layer viability. Ultimately, this tutorial equips network engineers with the tools required to transition quantum networking from a bespoke physics experiment into a programmable, multi-tenant global infrastructure.
The realization of a Quantum Internet is expected to transform communication networks by enabling intrinsically secure information exchange and distributed quantum applications. However, the experimental study of large-scale quantum networks remains limited by the high cost and operational constraints of quantum hardware. To address this challenge, this paper presents the design of a platform conceived to support research and experimentation in the field of quantum networking. The proposed system provides an emulation environment that mirrors the behavior of a real quantum network, enabling researchers to test protocols and mechanisms through a set of quantum operation instructions accessible via an Application Programming Interface (API). Emulated quantum nodes can be deployed across physically distributed locations, using physical or virtual machines or virtualization containers, allowing experiments to reproduce realistic network conditions and inter-node interactions. This approach enables applications to be executed over a persistent, configurable, and interactive environment that integrates both quantum and classical communication layers. To validate the feasibility of the proposed design, a prototype has been built and used to demonstrate its operation through a multi-hop quantum teleportation proof of concept. The results confirm the viability and flexibility of the architecture, laying the foundation for a distributed framework that facilitates the development and evaluation of quantum network architectures, control mechanisms, and experimental use cases.
Quantum networking testbeds lack a distinct plane for coordinating distributed measurements and collecting experimental data across heterogeneous devices. To address this gap, we present the Measurement Plane, a dedicated plane that complements the data, control, and management planes rather than replacing or extending their pipelines. The contribution is presented as a distributed framework that organizes measurement functions into four layers: application, experiment coordination, capability, and resource agents. Our design separates user workflows from device-specific control.
We implemented the framework as containerized microservices connected through publish--subscribe messaging, and validated it on a two-node quantum networking setup connected by an optical network. The framework successfully coordinated remote nodes to execute coincidence measurement and polarization entanglement distribution experiments with visibility interference of up to 98 percent. This evaluation demonstrated the effectiveness of the framework for supporting complex, distributed quantum experiments, enabling online measurement and feedback, and significantly reducing manual configuration and execution effort.
Quantum networks are needed for quantum domain applications that may run across different network deployments - point-to-point, multi-node networks, and possibly across inter-domain quantum networks, like the quantum internet. Unlike classical computing networks, quantum networks involve heterogeneous systems nodes that currently require local and manual control. This needs a unified control approach to help them integrate, work seamlessly, and have global knowledge. Software-defined Networking (SDN) has been successfully leveraged in classical networking for seamless and software-driven control of network infrastructure and packet switching, but not in management of quantum network applications across heterogeneous systems. In this paper, we review the current state of the art and present early developments of a System-of-Systems Software-defined Quantum Networking architecture (SoS-SDQN), a generic architecture that supports software-driven quantum network experiments across heterogeneous quantum systems. The architecture modifies the generic SDN to address the domain requirements of quantum networks and proposes a multilevel SDQN to provide a global view of network status, running applications, and control of incorporated heterogeneous quantum systems. We also design and implement a SoS SouthBound Quantum Interface (SoS-SBQI), a quantum infrastructure protocol that abstracts automation of applications across the network.