This work constructs a link control protocol that dynamically adapts source pump power and polarization compensation to maximize entanglement distribution rate subject to a minimum fidelity constraint and shows that software-based physical layer control can provide a practical mechanism for improving near-term quantum link performance without requiring additional quantum hardware.
Abstract
Quantum network links must distribute entanglement at high rates while satisfying application-specified fidelity demands. However, wide-area deployed fiber links suffer from polarization drift which destabilizes end-to-end fidelity and forces periodic compensation. Current deployments often use active stabilization with fixed control policies, and improvements generally stem from advances in quantum hardware. Meanwhile, software control remains relatively underexplored. Here, we formulate quantum link operation as a joint control problem over tunable rate-fidelity tradeoffs and uncontrollable link drift. From this framework, we construct a link control protocol that dynamically adapts source pump power and polarization compensation to maximize entanglement distribution rate subject to a minimum fidelity constraint. We evaluate the protocol through trace-driven simulations driven by data from a 64 km deployed optical fiber. Compared with optimized static policies, our adaptive controller improves mean entanglement distribution rate by 14% over a 24 hour trace, without requiring any offline policy optimization. Our results show that software-based physical layer control can provide a practical mechanism for improving near-term quantum link performance without requiring additional quantum hardware.
The framework developed in this paper can serve as an algorithmic building block for QEC-aware routing under logical-error and logical-lifetime constraints and reduces single-flow average routing cost and multi-flow throughput-normalized congestion by approximately 28--31\% over Greedy-Assignment.
Yuanbo Zhang, Qianfan Wang, Yangmin Zhao et al.· 0 citations
We show that entanglement-generation speed across a fixed network interface is governed by two distinct resources: the entangling capacity of the interface itself and the ability of the surrounding architecture to replenish it with fresh degrees of freedom. For fermionic Gaussian dynamics, we derive the coefficient-sharp bound $\sum_k|\dot\theta_k|\leq\frac12\|K_{AB}\|_*$ on the collective speed of the canonical entanglement angles. Explicit Ising-chain rematching trajectories saturate this bound, thereby certifying exact minimum interaction times under the stated control model. Beyond the Gaussian setting, exhaustive optimization of the complete $N=8$ tree--tree family shows that, at fixed interface capacity, first-layer entanglement, connectedness, and edge budget, the saturation depth is exactly classified by rooted architecture. With higher-resolution $x$-only control, variational entanglement-enhancing-field (VEEF) optimization reaches the numerically resolved fast-$X$ optimum in a two-channel benchmark. Across all 21 symmetry-reduced rooted orbits, a pre-specified two-time VEEF growth diagnostic recovers the complete replenishment partition directly from optimized dynamics. Interface capacity therefore sets how much entangling flux is available, whereas architecture determines whether fresh degrees of freedom can continually replenish the interface and sustain repeated use of that capacity.
High-fidelity entangled-state generation in driven two-atom systems is often optimized at a nominal transition frequency, which can produce control pulses that are fragile against detuning errors and experimental imperfections. To address this limitation, we develop a sampled-detuning quantum optimal-control approach in which different detuning values are treated as control scenarios driven by a common laser field. Time-domain equality constraints, including zero pulse area and fixed fluence, are incorporated directly into the pulse update. The resulting constraint-projected update provides a common ascent direction for the sampled detuning objectives while preserving the imposed pulse constraints. Numerical simulations show that the optimized robust pulses maintain a high target-state population over a wider detuning interval than resonant Gaussian pulses and conventional single-objective optimal pulses. The results further reveal a fluence-bandwidth trade-off for robust plateau formation. Frequency-domain analysis indicates that the enhanced robustness is associated with optimized off-resonant spectral components, and the robustness window can be tuned by selecting the sampled-detuning training range.
Quantum key distribution (QKD) promises information-theoretically secure communication, but future networks must bridge fiber and free-space links that naturally employ different photonic encodings, namely time-bin in fiber and polarization in free space. Here we demonstrate a complete hybrid fiber and free-space QKD link that bridges both media within a single end-to-end protocol, converting between the two encodings entirely in the optical domain. Using the decoy-state BB84 protocol operating at 1550 nm, we demonstrate continuous secure-key generation over a 90 m outdoor free-space link. The system operates across atmospheric conditions spanning more than two orders of magnitude in the refractive-index structure parameter Cn^2, from strong daytime turbulence to quiescent nighttime conditions, and we further validate photon-level operation over a 750 m free-space extension. Throughout, the link maintains a session-mean quantum bit error rate (QBER) of 5.6-6.8%, well below the 11% BB84 security threshold. The encoding conversion is performed entirely in the optical domain without measurement or state reconstruction, preserving the security assumptions of the BB84 protocol. Consequently, the time-bin-to-polarization (T2P) and polarization-to-time-bin (P2T) converters remain part of the untrusted quantum channel rather than trusted intermediate nodes. These results establish secure photonic encoding conversion as a practical interface between fiber and free-space quantum communication platforms, providing a building block for future quantum networks applications.
Khen Cohen, Tomer Nahum, Michael Tzukran et al.· 0 citations
Quantum networks will combine optical fibre with free-space links, yet continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CV-QKD) has been developed predominantly for one medium or the other, while operation across concatenated fibre-free-space channels remains largely unexplored. The two media impose contrasting requirements: fibre transmission is stable and permits long processing intervals, whereas atmospheric propagation imposes transmittance fluctuations that degrade security and must be resolved on short timescales. Here we demonstrate a locally generated local oscillator CV-QKD with both Gaussian-modulated coherent and squeezed states over a deployed hybrid channel comprising a 620-m free-space link and 2 km of deployed fibre, with a total loss up to 20 dB. Rather than adapting the optics to each medium, we move channel adaptation to the post-processing, through a unified adaptive post-processing framework coupling transmittance-based clustering, residual-fading mitigation by covariance-matrix averaging or de-fading, and rate-adaptive blind reconciliation, which alone recovers up to 19% additional key. The same adaptive-processing principle is applied to both protocols, while accounting for their different security analyses and statistical requirements, yielding asymptotic secret-key rates of 0.42 Mbit per sec for the coherent-state protocol and 0.93 Mbit per sec for the squeezed-state protocol under the respective channel conditions, and establishing squeezed-state CV-QKD over a deployed atmospheric channel. These results show that adaptation to the transmission medium can largely be transferred to the data-processing layer, providing a route towards heterogeneous quantum networks spanning fibre, terrestrial free-space and satellite links.
Dnan A.E. Hajomer, H. Q. Nguyen, Ivan Derkach et al.· 0 citations
It is proved that any optimal backbone configuration must correspond to a capacity-maximizing Voronoi tessellation of the network region, and this can be efficiently approximated by a centroidal Voronoi tessellation via Lloyd's algorithm, with backbone nodes connected according to a Delaunay triangulation.
A. Fletcher, Ignazio Pedone, S. Pirandola· 0 citations