ESDI: Entanglement Scheduling and Distribution in the Quantum Internet

TL;DR

This paper introduces ESDI, a new scheduling framework for entanglement distribution in quantum networks, optimizing request completion times and deadline adherence across multiple source-destination pairs.

Contribution

It proposes a novel optimization framework and protocol for entanglement scheduling in quantum networks, addressing multiple request scenarios with improved performance.

Findings

ESDI outperforms existing solutions in simulations.

The framework effectively minimizes average request completion time.

It maximizes the number of requests meeting deadlines.

Abstract

Quantum entanglement distribution between remote nodes is key to many promising quantum applications. Existing mechanisms have mainly focused on improving throughput and fidelity via entanglement routing or single-node scheduling. This paper considers entanglement scheduling and distribution among many source-destination pairs with different requests over an entire quantum network topology. Two practical scenarios are considered. When requests do not have deadlines, we seek to minimize the average completion time of the communication requests. If deadlines are specified, we seek to maximize the number of requests whose deadlines are met. Inspired by optimal scheduling disciplines in conventional single-queue scenarios, we design a general optimization framework for entanglement scheduling and distribution called ESDI, and develop a probabilistic protocol to implement the optimized solutions in a general buffered quantum network. We develop a discrete-time quantum network simulator for evaluation. Results show the superior performance of ESDI compared to existing solutions.