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Summary

Quantum Internet RG

Work toward a Quantum Internet is well underway in physics laboratories and in theory groups. The next step is network engineering. Some of the problems we hope to address include:

• routing: there are a number of proposals, including a couple in the last six months or so, and which routing schemes are appropriate for which circumstances needs to be assessed
• resource allocation: some of the routing proposals seem to be including a notion of the dynamic traffic on the network, but this distinction needs to be defined clearly
• connection establishment: what does a request look like (semantics more than syntax) as it propagates across the network?
• interoperability: given than different networks are currently being designed and built, how do we ensure a long-lived internetwork develops?
• security: are quantum repeater networks inherently more or less vulnerable in operations than classical networks?

There are also other problems:

• applications for a Quantum Internet: by far the most important on the agenda is figuring out what we would do with a Quantum Internet, including what data rates and fidelities are required (otherwise, there is no market for a QI)
• multi-party states and multi-party transfers such as network coding: rather than simple, independent point-to-point transfers, how can we create and use more complex states?

But perhaps two of the most important things that can be done as a community are:

• There is a taxonomy of 1G, 2G, 3G repeaters, created by Muralidharan, Jiang and others
• Wehner and Elkhouss have created a great roadmap of milestones for quantum networks

Discussing, perhaps enhancing, publicizing and endorsing such roadmaps/taxonomies might be a good starting point.

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