Routing protocols are critical for any useful and reliable communication network -- they ensure that the right data gets delivered to the right places, devices, and applications at the right times, and at the right speeds. Building on decades of routing technologies that underpin the Internet, we extend these concepts to quantum networks of the future.
The very nature of quantum mechanics poses some unique challenges: quantum routing protocols must also consider optical loss, fidelity decay, limited storage times, and probabilistic operations. This paper delves into the intricacies of routing quantum information: we comprehensively survey and explore strategies to optimize entanglement distribution in multi-user quantum networks, which could pave the way for more robust and efficient quantum network architectures.
Aliro and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) worked together on a research paper covering this topic entitled “Entanglement Routing in Quantum Networks” which is published on arXiv.
Key Contributions:
- We align quantum communications with classical terminology, to give a clear reference for those more familiar with classical networking.
- We introduce a taxonomy for entanglement routing concepts to enable a modular approach to routing design.
- We provide a mathematical definition of the entanglement routing problem, covering essential aspects for effective routing.
- We offer discussions covering entanglement routing schemes, swapping strategies, and path computation algorithms, for a comprehensive view of the current state of entanglement routing.
We’re grateful to have worked on this with some truly brilliant minds at NIST. Here’s to pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in #quantum!
Entanglement Routing in Quantum Networks: A Comprehensive Survey
