Adaptive Entanglement-Aware Routing for Satellite Quantum Networks under Orbital and Atmospheric Variability

TL;DR

This paper introduces an adaptive routing framework for satellite quantum networks that dynamically accounts for orbital and atmospheric variability, significantly improving key rates and entanglement fidelity.

Contribution

It presents a novel entanglement-aware routing method that jointly considers orbital geometry, atmospheric effects, and link trust, outperforming existing adaptive schemes.

Findings

Up to 275% increase in key generation rate

15% improvement in entanglement fidelity

Robust performance under fading variances up to 0.1

Abstract

The expansion of satellite-based quantum networks requires adaptive routing mechanisms that can sustain entanglement under dynamic orbital and atmospheric conditions. Conventional schemes, often tailored to static or idealised topologies, fail to capture the combined effects of orbital motion, fading, and trust variability in inter-satellite links. This work proposes an \textit{adaptive entanglement-aware routing framework} that jointly accounts for orbital geometry, atmospheric attenuation, and multi-parameter link evaluation. The routing metric integrates fidelity, trust, and key-rate weights to maintain connectivity and mitigate loss from turbulence and fading. Monte Carlo simulations across multiple orbital densities ($\rho = 10^{-6}$~km$^{-3}$) and environmental regimes, standard atmosphere, strong turbulence, and clear-sky LEO show up to a 275\% improvement in key generation rate and a 15\% increase in effective entanglement fidelity over existing adaptive methods. The framework achieves sub-linear path-length scaling with network size and remains robust for fading variances up to $\sigma_{\mathrm{fade}}=0.1$, demonstrating strong potential for future global quantum constellations.