NetSquid, a NETwork Simulator for QUantum Information using Discrete events

TL;DR

NetSquid is a versatile discrete-event simulation platform designed to model complex quantum networks and modular quantum systems, aiding in protocol development and hardware requirements analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive simulation framework for quantum networks, covering physical to application layers, and demonstrates its capabilities through various detailed case studies.

Findings

Simulated quantum repeater chains with nitrogen vacancy centers.

Analyzed control plane of a quantum switch beyond analytical solutions.

Simulated entanglement distribution over 1000-node networks.

Abstract

In order to bring quantum networks into the real world, we would like to determine the requirements of quantum network protocols including the underlying quantum hardware. Because detailed architecture proposals are generally too complex for mathematical analysis, it is natural to employ numerical simulation. Here we introduce NetSquid, the NETwork Simulator for QUantum Information using Discrete events, a discrete-event based platform for simulating all aspects of quantum networks and modular quantum computing systems, ranging from the physical layer and its control plane up to the application level. We study several use cases to showcase NetSquid's power, including detailed physical layer simulations of repeater chains based on nitrogen vacancy centres in diamond as well as atomic ensembles. We also study the control plane of a quantum switch beyond its analytically known regime, and showcase NetSquid's ability to investigate large networks by simulating entanglement distribution over a chain of up to one thousand nodes.