Lessons Learned on the Interface Between Quantum and Conventional Networking

Muneer Alshowkan, Nageswara S.V. Rao, Joseph C. Chapman, Brian P. Williams, Philip G. Evans, Raphael C. Pooser, Joseph M. Lukens, Nicholas A. Peters

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

The future Quantum Internet is expected to be based on a hybrid architecture with core quantum transport capabilities complemented by conventional networking. Practical and foundational considerations indicate the need for conventional control and data planes that (i) utilize extensive existing telecommunications fiber infrastructure, and (ii) provide parallel conventional data channels needed for quantum networking protocols. We propose a quantum-conventional network (QCN) harness to implement a new architecture to meet these requirements. The QCN control plane carries the control and management traffic, whereas its data plane handles the conventional and quantum data communications. We established a local area QCN connecting three quantum laboratories over dedicated fiber and conventional network connections. We describe considerations and tradeoffs for layering QCN functionalities, informed by our recent quantum entanglement distribution experiments conducted over this network.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationDriving Scientific and Engineering Discoveries Through the Integration of Experiment, Big Data, and Modeling and Simulation - 21st Smoky Mountains Computational Sciences and Engineering, SMC 2021, Revised Selected Papers
Editors[given-name]Jeffrey Nichols, [given-name]Arthur ‘Barney’ Maccabe, James Nutaro, Swaroop Pophale, Pravallika Devineni, Theresa Ahearn, Becky Verastegui
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Pages262-279
Number of pages18
ISBN (Print)9783030964979
DOIs
StatePublished - 2022
Event21st Smoky Mountains Computational Sciences and Engineering Conference, SMC 2021 - Virtual, Online
Duration: Oct 18 2021Oct 20 2021

Publication series

NameCommunications in Computer and Information Science
Volume1512 CCIS
ISSN (Print)1865-0929
ISSN (Electronic)1865-0937

Conference

Conference21st Smoky Mountains Computational Sciences and Engineering Conference, SMC 2021
CityVirtual, Online
Period10/18/2110/20/21

Funding

Acknowledgments. This research used resources of the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725. This research is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research, through the Early Career Research Program and Transparent Optical Quantum Networks for Distributed Science Program (Field Work Proposals ERKJ353 and ERKJ355).

Keywords

  • Control plane
  • Conventional network
  • Efficient networks
  • Entanglement distribution
  • Quantum key distribution
  • Quantum network
  • Teleportation

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