Synchronization Control-Plane Protocol for Quantum Link Layer

TL;DR

This paper introduces a decentralized synchronization protocol for quantum internet nodes that significantly reduces entanglement request latency, enabling scalable and efficient quantum network operations.

Contribution

It presents the first decentralized protocol for heralded entanglement synchronization, improving latency and scalability in quantum network link layers.

Findings

Sixfold reduction in request latency growth with more links

Protocol outperforms naive distributed queue approaches

Scalable coordination in multi-peer quantum networks

Abstract

Heralded entanglement generation between nodes of a future quantum internet is a fundamental operation that unlocks the potential for quantum communication. In this paper, we propose a decentralized synchronization protocol that operates at the classical control-plane of the link layer, to navigate the coordination challenges of generating heralded entanglement across few-qubit quantum network nodes. Additionally, with quantum network simulations using NetSquid, we show that our protocol achieves lower entanglement request latencies than a naive distributed queue approach. We observe a sixfold reduction in average request latency growth as the number of quantum network links increases. The Eventual Synchronization Protocol (ESP) allows nodes to coordinate on heralded entanglement generation in a scalable manner within multi-peer quantum networks. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first decentralized synchronization protocol for managing heralded entanglement requests.