Ciobanu B C, Calafeteanu T A, Popa A B, Tătăroiu R, Popescu P G
Computer Science and Engineering Department, National University of Science and Technology POLITEHNICA Bucharest, Bucharest, 60042, Romania.
Sci Rep. 2025 May 12;15(1):16459. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-00391-x.
Entanglement distribution networks are essential for enabling secure, reliable, and sustained communication through the future Quantum Internet. Multi-ring network topologies offer improved scalability and redundancy, but also introduce additional routing complexity for the task of efficiently distributing entanglement. This paper solves the problem of optimal entanglement distribution in multi-ring quantum network topologies. Two separate multi-ring network configurations are analyzed, one where requests can only be routed within a single ring layer, and involves a less complex node setup, and one where requests may switch ring layers when passing through the network's nodes, at the cost of additional complexity within the nodes themselves. We propose algorithms that solve the problem of entanglement distribution in terms of optimal time needed to satisfy a set of entanglement resupply requests with given network resources, as well as the problem of optimal resources in order to satisfy a set of entanglement resupply requests within a single entanglement transmission and measurement step. We provide a comprehensive analysis of the proposed algorithms through computer simulations, which indicate that the additional complexity of a network which allows switching between ring layers brings little benefit in terms of time to serve requests, but may reduce the number of resources needed to satisfy the entanglement distribution requests in a non-blocking manner.
纠缠分发网络对于通过未来的量子互联网实现安全、可靠和持续的通信至关重要。多环网络拓扑结构提供了更高的可扩展性和冗余性，但也为高效分发纠缠的任务引入了额外的路由复杂性。本文解决了多环量子网络拓扑结构中的最优纠缠分发问题。分析了两种不同的多环网络配置，一种是请求只能在单个环层内路由，节点设置较简单；另一种是请求在通过网络节点时可以切换环层，但代价是节点自身的复杂性增加。我们提出了算法，这些算法从利用给定网络资源满足一组纠缠补给请求所需的最优时间以及在单个纠缠传输和测量步骤内满足一组纠缠补给请求所需的最优资源的角度解决纠缠分发问题。我们通过计算机模拟对所提出的算法进行了全面分析，结果表明允许在环层之间切换的网络的额外复杂性在服务请求的时间方面带来的好处很少，但可能会减少以无阻塞方式满足纠缠分发请求所需的资源数量。
