Reducing hardware requirements for entanglement distribution via joint hardware-protocol optimization

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that optimized protocol choices can significantly reduce hardware needs for long-distance fiber-based quantum entanglement distribution, with costs scaling linearly with distance.

Contribution

It introduces a combined numerical and optimization framework to identify minimal hardware requirements through protocol and strategy optimization in quantum repeaters.

Findings

Hardware requirements scale linearly with distance when protocols are optimized.

Using purification and a SWAP-ASAP policy improves entanglement fidelity and rate.

Simulation with NetSquid and genetic algorithms effectively determines minimal hardware configurations.

Abstract

We conduct a numerical investigation of fiber-based entanglement distribution over distances of up to 1600km using a chain of processing-node quantum repeaters. We determine minimal hardware requirements while simultaneously optimizing over protocols for entanglement generation and entanglement purification, as well as over strategies for entanglement swapping. Notably, we discover that through an adequate choice of protocols the hardware improvement cost scales linearly with the distance covered. Our results highlight the crucial role of good protocol choices in significantly reducing hardware requirements, such as employing purification to meet high-fidelity targets and adopting a SWAP-ASAP policy for faster rates. To carry out this analysis, we employ an extensive simulation framework implemented with NetSquid, a discrete-event-based quantum-network simulator, and a genetic-algorithm-based optimization methodology to determine minimal hardware requirements.