The second quantum revolution brings with it the promise of a quantum internet. As the first quantum network hardware prototypes near completion new challenges emerge. A functional network is more than just the physical hardware, yet work on scalable quantum network systems is in its infancy. In this paper we present a quantum network protocol designed to enable end-to-end quantum communication in the face of the new fundamental and technical challenges brought by quantum mechanics. We develop a quantum data plane protocol that enables end-to-end quantum communication and can serve as a building block for more complex services. One of the key challenges in near-term quantum technology is decoherence -- the gradual decay of quantum information -- which imposes extremely stringent limits on storage times. Our protocol is designed to be efficient in the face of short quantum memory lifetimes. We demonstrate this using a simulator for quantum networks and show that the protocol is able to deliver its service even in the face of significant losses due to decoherence. Finally, we conclude by showing that the protocol remains functional on the extremely resource limited hardware that is being developed today underlining the timeliness of this work.
翻译:第二个量子革命带来了量子互联网的希望。随着第一个量子网络硬件原型接近完成,出现了新的挑战。一个功能网络不仅仅是物理硬件,而关于可缩放量子网络系统的工作还处于初级阶段。在这份文件中,我们提出了一个量子网络协议,目的是在面对量子力学带来的新的根本性和技术挑战时能够进行端到端的量子通信。我们开发了一个量子数据平面协议,能够进行端到端的量子通信,并且可以作为更复杂的服务的基础。近期量子技术的主要挑战之一是脱节 -- -- 量子信息逐渐衰减 -- -- 对存储时间规定了极其严格的限制。我们的协议设计是为了在量子记忆寿命短的情况下提高效率。我们用量子网络模拟器展示了这一点,并表明即使在由于分解而蒙受重大损失的情况下,该协议仍然能够提供服务。最后,我们通过表明协议仍然对今天正在开发的极有限的资源硬件起作用,从而强调这项工作的及时性。