Entanglement Management through Swapping over Quantum Internets

Abstract

Quantum Internet has the potential to support a wide range of applications in quantum communication and quantum computing by generating, distributing, and processing quantum information. Generating a long-distance quantum entanglement is one of the most essential functions of a quantum Internet to facilitate these applications. However, entanglement is a probabilistic process, and its success rate drops significantly as distance increases. Entanglement swapping is an efficient technique used to address this challenge. How to efficiently manage the entanglement through swapping is a fundamental yet challenging problem. In this paper, we will consider two swapping methods: (1) BSM: a classic entanglement-swapping method based on Bell State measurements that fuse two successful quantum links, (2) nfusion: a more general and efficient swapping method based on Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger measurements, capable of fusing n successful quantum links. Our goal is to maximize the entanglement rate for multiple quantum-user pairs over the quantum Internet with an arbitrary topology. We propose efficient entanglement management algorithms that utilized the unique properties of BSM and n-fusion. Evaluation results highlight that our approach outperforms existing routing protocols.