Quantum Internet Architecture: unlocking Quantum-Native Routing via Quantum Addressing

TL;DR

This paper addresses the challenge of scalable quantum networking by proposing a quantum-native, two-tier Quantum Internet architecture that internalizes entanglement management via an Entanglement-Defined Controller (EDC) and embeds quantum principles directly into node identifiers through a quantum addressing scheme. It introduces entanglement-packet switching to treat ebits as the network’s fundamental packets and develops quantum-native routing with compact, sublinear routing tables and constant entangling stretch, enabled by anchor-based overlay schemes. A key technical novelty is the Schrödinger's oracle-based quantum address splitting, which extends Grover search to operate coherently on superposed quantum addresses, enabling non-destructive extraction of target addresses from quantum routing structures. The framework integrates a dual classical-quantum addressing model, a quantum header in packets, and quantum-intrinsic control, offering scalable routing, dynamic entanglement provisioning, and a pathway toward quantum-classical network coexistence and future prototyping. Overall, the work provides a foundational architecture and protocol design showing how quantum-native control and addressing can unlock scalable quantum networking and agile entanglement management.

Abstract

The key objective of the Quantum Internet is the distribution and manipulation of entanglement to enable unprecedented applications. This requires a radical departure from classical Internet design principles, such as the end-to-end argument, due to the inherently stateful and non-local nature of entanglement, which demands coordinated in-network operations and persistent state awareness. To this end, we propose a novel hierarchical Quantum Internet architecture centered on the concept of Entanglement-Defined Controller (EDC). This architectural design constitutes the foundational layer, by enabling a clear separation between control and data planes. While necessary, this separation is insufficient to manage entanglement resources, requiring a quantum-native control plane. Consequently, we propose a quantum addressing scheme that embeds quantumness directly into node identifiers, allowing the network to natively track and manipulate entanglement as a dynamic resource. Built upon these two interdependent pillars -- EDC-based architecture and quantum addressing -- we design a quantum-native routing protocol that achieves scalability through compact routing tables, by efficiently operating over entanglement-defined topologies. Finally, we design a quantum address splitting functionality based on Schrodinger's oracles that generalizes classical match-and-forward logic to the quantum domain. Collectively, these contributions demonstrate, for the first time, the fundamental advantages of quantum-by-design network control for enabling scalable quantum networking.

Figures (10)

• Figure 1: Entanglement-Defined Network Architecture showing: (1) ESPs forming a virtual mesh via proactive entanglement sharing (dashed lines), (2) EDC responsible of the control plane functionalities, and (3) end-user quantum nodes connected to the serving ESP.
• Figure 2: Overview of the contributions and their dependencies. The EDC-based architecture and quantum addressing form the two interdependent pillars of the foundational layer of our proposal, enabling scalable quantum-native control. Building on this core, the routing protocol and the addressing splitting functionality demonstrate concrete scalability gains.
• Figure 3: Quantum packet structure. The header carries quantum information for the quantum routing logic, such as source-destination quantum network addresses $\ket{x_i},\ket{x_j}$ and quantum superpositions $\ket{A_j}$ representing set of quantum nodes introduced in Sec. \ref{['sec:4.2']}, while the payload carries entangled qubits (ebits) to be shared among network nodes.
• Figure 4: Partial-Anchor Scheme: only the fraction of ESPs in $T$ (depicted in purple) is responsible for proactively creating high-cost artificial links each others, whereas all the ESPs maintain low-cost artificial links with their e-neighborhood $N(\cdot)$.
• Figure 5: Full-Anchor Scheme: each ESP is responsible for proactively creating both low- and high-cost artificial links, the formers with their e-neighborhood $N(\cdot)$ and the latters with a specific subset of nodes.

Theorems & Definitions (24)

• Remark 1
• Remark 2
• Definition 1: Quantum Address
• Definition 2: Link Entanglement Metric
• Remark 3
• Remark 4
• Definition 3: End-to-end Entangling Metric
• Definition 4: Entangling Stretch
• Remark 5
• Remark 6