# Synchronization Control-Plane Protocol for Quantum Link Layer

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.07049 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.07049/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 11 Sep 2024.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Intelligence-Guided Adaptive Purification for DDoS-Resilient Quantum Networks: A CUDA-Q based Study](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.16276/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Heralded entanglement generation between nodes of a future quantum internet is a fundamental operation that unlocks the potential for quantum communication. In this paper, we propose a decentralized synchronization protocol that operates at the classical control-plane of the link layer, to navigate the coordination challenges of generating heralded entanglement across few-qubit quantum network nodes. Additionally, with quantum network simulations using NetSquid, we show that our protocol achieves lower entanglement request latencies than a naive distributed queue approach. We observe a sixfold reduction in average request latency growth as the number of quantum network links increases. The Eventual Synchronization Protocol (ESP) allows nodes to coordinate on heralded entanglement generation in a scalable manner within multi-peer quantum networks. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first decentralized synchronization protocol for managing heralded entanglement requests.