Quantum Internet Protocol Stack: a Comprehensive Survey

Abstract

Classical Internet evolved exceptionally during the last five decades, from a network comprising a few static nodes in the early days to a leviathan interconnecting billions of devices. This has been possible by the separation of concern principle, for which the network functionalities are organized as a stack of layers, each providing some communication functionalities through specific network protocols. In this survey, we aim at highlighting the impossibility of adapting the classical Internet protocol stack to the Quantum Internet, due to the marvels of quantum mechanics. Indeed, the design of the Quantum Internet requires a major paradigm shift of the whole protocol stack for harnessing the peculiarities of quantum entanglement and quantum information. In this context, we first overview the relevant literature about Quantum Internet protocol stack. Then, stemming from this, we sheds the light on the open problems and required efforts toward the design of an effective and complete Quantum Internet protocol stack. To the best of authors' knowledge, a survey of this type is the first of its own. What emerges from this analysis is that the Quantum Internet, though still in its infancy, is a disruptive technology whose design requires an inter-disciplinary effort at the border between quantum physics, computer and telecommunications engineering.

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• The Quantum Internet
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Cited by in corpus (14)

• Quantum repeaters: From quantum networks to the quantum internet
• Distributed Quantum Computing: a Survey
• 20-Mode Universal Quantum Photonic Processor
• Quantum NETwork: from theory to practice
• The Quantum Internet: Enhancing Classical Internet Services one Qubit at a Time
• Breaking universal limitations on quantum conference key agreement without quantum memory
• Classification of four-qubit entangled states via Machine Learning
• Deep reinforcement learning for key distribution based on quantum repeaters
• Deterministic Generation of Multipartite Entanglement via Causal Activation in the Quantum Internet
• Quantum Internet: from Medium Access Control to Entanglement Access Control
• Quantum LOSR networks cannot generate graph states with high fidelity
• Quantum Machine Learning for Distributed Quantum Protocols with Local Operations and Noisy Classical Communications
• A Configurable Protocol for Quantum Entanglement Distribution to End Nodes
• Creating long-range entangled Majorana pairs: from spin-1/2 twisted Kitaev to generalized XY chains