Hybrid packet switching assisted by classical frame for entanglement-based quantum networks

Abstract

One of the first problems of studying the quantum internet is how to realize quantum interconnection between users in a quantum network. To address above problem, by referencing the classical Internet, developing the packet switching of quantum networks is a promising way. In this paper, we propose a new hybrid packet switching for entanglement-based quantum networks assisted by classical frame. Different from the previous packet switching for quantum networks based on single photon, the frame used in our scheme is pure classical rather than the classical-quantum structure, and the transmission of classical and quantum signals over physical channels can be independent, which makes our scheme is also valid for quantum networks with heralded entanglement generation. Using our hybrid packet switching, the process of building entanglement channel between end nodes is analogous to the classical packet-switched networks, which provides an effective way to build large-scale packet-switched entanglement-based quantum internet. To verify the feasibility, we perform end-to-end entanglement distribution using our hybrid packet switching in a quantum network and simulate the fidelities of distributed state with respect to the number of hops.