U.S.-Ireland R&D Partnership: Collaborative Research: CNS Core: Medium: A unified framework for the emulation of classical and quantum physical layer networks

量子物理、设备、计算和通信系统的最新进展引起了人们对量子互联网潜力的关注，量子互联网可能被用于各种应用，包括量子计算机的互联。量子互联网预计将包括古典通信系统和量子通信系统的结合。本课题旨在将经典的控制体系结构和研究方法应用于量子网络控制的研究，研究量子应用的网络控制及其与经典通信系统的共存。几个用例将用于评估拟议方法的有效性。该项目汇集了一个独特的美国-爱尔兰-北爱尔兰跨学科团队，以应对量子互联网发展面临的重要挑战。亚利桑那大学的美国合作伙伴将在对光通信系统中不同形式的量子和经典噪声敏感的用例中提供专业知识。这包括这些噪声源的理论模型、它们在通信网络中的表示以及它们在网络仿真中的表示。都柏林三一学院的爱尔兰共和国团队将使用这些新模型作为经典网络仿真工具的扩展，并将这些工具应用于量子网络中控制平面和网络分层的研究。贝尔法斯特皇后大学的北爱尔兰团队将研究对这些新工具进行基准测试和评估的关键用例。每个机构的这种广泛的专业知识和能力将是该项目成功的关键。该项目将产生的软件工具和理解将得到广泛传播，并使经典网络和量子网络互操作方面的新研究成为可能。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Recent advances in quantum physics, devices, computing and communications systems have brought attention to the potential of a quantum Internet, which may be used for a variety of applications, including interconnection of quantum computers. A quantum Internet is expected to involve a combination of classical and quantum communication systems working in concert. The research in this project seeks to apply classical control architectures and research methods to the investigation of quantum network control, and to study network control of quantum applications and their coexistence with classical communication systems. Several use cases will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.This project brings together a unique US-Ireland-Northern Ireland interdisciplinary team to address important challenges facing the development of a quantum Internet. The United States partners at the University of Arizona will contribute expertise in use cases sensitive to different forms of quantum and classical noise in optical communication systems. This includes theoretical models for these noise sources, their expression in communication networks, and their representation in network emulation. The Republic of Ireland team at Trinity College Dublin will use these new models in extensions to classical network emulation tools and adapt these tools to the study of control planes and network layering in quantum networks. Key use cases to benchmark and evaluate these new tools will be studied by the Northern Ireland team at Queens University Belfast. This wide range of expertise and capabilities across each institution will be essential for the success of this project. The software tools and understanding that will result from this project will be widely disseminated and enable new research in the interoperation of classical and quantum networks.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.