Quantum entanglement is so fundamentally different from a network packet that several quantum network stacks have been proposed; one of which has even been experimentally demonstrated. Several simulators have also been developed to make up for limited hardware availability, and which facilitate the design and evaluation of quantum network protocols. However, the lack of shared tooling and community-agreed node architectures has resulted in protocol implementations that are tightly coupled to their simulators. Besides limiting their reusability between different simulators, it also makes building upon prior results and simulations difficult. To address this problem, we have developed QuIP: a P4-based Quantum Internet Protocol prototyping framework for quantum network protocol design. QuIP is a framework for designing and implementing quantum network protocols in a platform-agnostic fashion. It achieves this by providing the means to flexibly, but rigorously, define device architectures against which quantum network protocols can be implemented in the network programming language P4-16. QuIP also comes with the necessary tooling to enable their execution in existing quantum network simulators. We demonstrate its use by showcasing V1Quantum, a completely new device architecture, implementing a link- and network-layer protocol, and simulating it in the existing simulator NetSquid.

The vision of a quantum internet is to enhance existing Internet technology by enabling quantum communication between any two points on Earth. To achieve this goal, a quantum network stack should be built from the ground up to account for the fundamentally new properties of quantum entanglement. The first quantum entanglement networks have been realised, but there is no practical proposal for how to organise, utilise, and manage such networks. In this document, we attempt to lay down the framework and introduce some basic architectural principles for a quantum internet. This is intended for general guidance and general interest. It is also intended to provide a foundation for discussion between physicists and network specialists. This document is a product of the Quantum Internet Research Group (QIRG).