Stability Analysis of a Quantum Network with Max-Weight Scheduling

Abstract: We study a quantum network that distributes entangled quantum states to multiple sets of users that are connected to the network. Each user is connected to a switch of the network via a link. All the links of the network generate bipartite Bell-state entangled states in each time-slot with certain probabilities, and each end node stores one qubit of the entanglement generated by the link. To create shared entanglements for a set of users, measurement operations are performed on qubits of link-level entanglements on a set of related links, and these operations are probabilistic in nature and are successful with certain probabilities. Requests arrive to the system seeking shared entanglements for different sets of users. Each request is for the creation of shared entanglements for a fixed set of users using link-level entanglements on a fixed set of links. Requests are processed according to First-Come-First-Served service discipline and unserved requests are stored in buffers. Once a request is selected for service, measurement operations are performed on qubits of link-level entanglements on related links to create a shared entanglement. For given set of request arrival rates and link-level entanglement generation rates, we obtain necessary conditions for the stability of queues of requests. In each time-slot, the scheduler has to schedule entanglement swapping operations for different sets of users to stabilize the network. Next, we propose a Max-Weight scheduling policy and show that this policy stabilizes the network for all feasible arrival rates. We also provide numerical results to support our analysis. The analysis of a single quantum switch that creates multipartite entanglements for different sets of users is a special case of our work.