Utility-Based Path Selection and Configuration in Quantum Networks via Layered Shortest Paths

Quantum Physics arXiv:2609.16198 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 14 Sep 2026] Title:Utility-Based Path Selection and Configuration in Quantum Networks via Layered Shortest Paths Authors:Leonardo Bacciottini, Subhransu Maji, Don Towsley, Gayane Vardoyan View a PDF of the paper titled Utility-Based Path Selection and Configuration in Quantum Networks via Layered Shortest Paths, by Leonardo Bacciottini and 3 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:A path in a quantum network is a chain of repeaters that distributes entanglement between two users. Selecting a path requires balancing the rate and quality (e.g., fidelity) of the delivered entanglement, but these quantities, unlike standard routing metrics, compose non-additively. The problem is compounded by link-level configuration choices (e.g., distillation rounds or emitter brightness tuning), each trading rate against fidelity, so that a path's performance depends jointly on its route and its per-link settings. We cast this joint path selection and configuration problem as a shortest path computation on a layered graph whose layers track discretized end-to-end fidelity. A single run returns the full rate fidelity Pareto frontier, from which the path maximizing any nondecreasing utility function of rate and fidelity can be selected. We prove that for certain utility functions (including the secret key rate of BB84), the method is a fully polynomial time approximation scheme, returning a near-optimal path within a specified tolerance. We further characterize exactly when cheaper scalarization-based routing suffices: it is optimal for utility functions with convex fidelity profiles, but can be arbitrarily suboptimal otherwise (e.g., for step-like, sigmoidal utilities), whereas the layered method remains reliable in all cases. Comments: Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph); Networking and Internet Architecture (cs.NI) Cite as: arXiv:2609.16198 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2609.16198v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2609.16198 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration) Submission history From: Leonardo Bacciottini [view email] [v1] Mon, 14 Sep 2026 18:30:46 UTC (5,325 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Utility-Based Path Selection and Configuration in Quantum Networks via Layered Shortest Paths, by Leonardo Bacciottini and 3 other authorsView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-09 Change to browse by: cs cs.NI 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?)