A Distributed Switching Protocol for Quantum Networks
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Quantum Physics arXiv:2605.07295 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 8 May 2026] Title:A Distributed Switching Protocol for Quantum Networks Authors:Aman Yacob Tekleab, Yifeng Shen, Yoshii Yutaro, Amin Taherkhani, Rodney Van Meter, Shota Nagayama View a PDF of the paper titled A Distributed Switching Protocol for Quantum Networks, by Aman Yacob Tekleab and 5 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:With the advent of the construction and deployment of entanglement-based quantum networks, the efficient use of network resources will become a critical challenge for the scalable operation of such a system. Recently, architectures that incorporate memoryless optical switches have gained attention for forwarding entangled photons. By leveraging these architectures, costly resources such as high efficiency Bell State Analyzers (BSAs) can be shared across the network. Nevertheless, the introduction of switching substantially complicates the process of multiplexing and resource allocation compared to an individual link. In this work, we propose a switching protocol for unbuffered, multidrop quantum networks in a photonic synchronization domain that establishes a link between two end nodes using a shared BSA in the switched network. To achieve this, two end nodes cooperatively select the target BSA node with the lowest path cost and independently reserve each path within the network. Bi-path reservations are performed to allocate resources in a distributed manner. The proposed protocol is evaluated through simulation on Q-Fly network topologies under varying traffic conditions. The results demonstrate high link establishment success with stable performance even under increased network load. These capabilities which are driven by our proposed protocol are an essential way to realize large-scale, managed, and automated quantum networks. Comments: Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph) ACM classes: C.2.2; C.2.4 Cite as: arXiv:2605.07295 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2605.07295v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2605.07295 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration) Submission history From: Aman Yacob Tekleab [view email] [v1] Fri, 8 May 2026 06:04:28 UTC (250 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled A Distributed Switching Protocol for Quantum Networks, by Aman Yacob Tekleab and 5 other authorsView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-05 References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADSGoogle Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate (What is Replicate?) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs. Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)