A Distributed Switching Protocol for Quantum Networks

Abstract: With the advent of the construction and deployment of entanglement-based quantum networks, the efficient use of network resources will become a critical challenge for the scalable operation of such a system. Recently, architectures that incorporate memoryless optical switches have gained attention for forwarding entangled photons. By leveraging these architectures, costly resources such as high efficiency Bell State Analyzers (BSAs) can be shared across the network. Nevertheless, the introduction of switching substantially complicates the process of multiplexing and resource allocation compared to an individual link. In this work, we propose a switching protocol for unbuffered, multidrop quantum networks in a photonic synchronization domain that establishes a link between two end nodes using a shared BSA in the switched network. To achieve this, two end nodes cooperatively select the target BSA node with the lowest path cost and independently reserve each path within the network. Bi-path reservations are performed to allocate resources in a distributed manner. The proposed protocol is evaluated through simulation on Q-Fly network topologies under varying traffic conditions. The results demonstrate high link establishment success with stable performance even under increased network load. These capabilities which are driven by our proposed protocol are an essential way to realize large-scale, managed, and automated quantum networks.