A Comprehensive Protocol Stack for Quantum Networks with a Global Entanglement Module
This work provides a practical protocol stack for scalable, adaptive quantum internet systems, addressing the need for integrated communication and resource management in large-scale quantum networks.
The paper presents the first comprehensive protocol stack for quantum networks with a Global Entanglement Module (GEM), achieving a 20% improvement in entanglement generation rates over a fixed-tree baseline and more than a two-fold improvement over recent connectionless approaches.
The development of large-scale quantum networks requires not only advances in physical-layer technologies but also a comprehensive protocol stack that integrates communication, control, and resource management across all layers. We present the first such protocol stack, which introduces a Global Entanglement Module (GEM) that maintains a consistent, network-wide view of entanglement resources through distributed synchronization strategies. By enabling real-time adaptive execution of entanglement distribution plans, GEM bridges the gap between static planning and dynamic operation. The stack naturally supports pre-distributed entanglement, purification, and multi-partite state generation, making it applicable to a broad range of quantum networking applications. We design and evaluate multiple adaptive heuristics for real-time execution and show that a lightweight scoring-based strategy consistently achieves the best performance, improving entanglement generation rates by about 20% over a globally optimal but non-adaptive fixed-tree baseline and achieving more than a two-fold improvement relative to recent connectionless approaches. Across all scenarios-including predistribution and fidelity analysis-GEM consistently enables lower latency and robust operation. These results establish a practical pathway toward scalable, adaptive quantum internet systems.