Cascaded swapping scheduler for entanglement distribution network

An apparatus comprising:

• a network interface to communicate with a network;
• and
• a processor of a node on a path of a quantum network that leads from a source to a destination, wherein the processor is coupled to the network interface and is configured to perform propagating quantum entanglement hop-by-hop along the path toward the destination by:
• establishing a first entanglement link with a previous-hop node on the path;
• determining a next-hop node on the path based on the destination;
• attempting to establish a second entanglement link with the next-hop node;
• and
• upon receiving an acknowledgement from the next-hop node indicating that the second entanglement link is established, performing an entanglement swap on the first entanglement link and the second entanglement link to establish a third entanglement link between the previous-hop node and the next-hop node.

A method comprising:

• at a node on a path of a quantum network, propagating parallel quantum entanglement hop-by-hop along the path by:
• establishing M inbound entanglement links with a previous node on the path, where M>2;
• attempting to establish N outbound entanglement links with a next node on the path, where N>2, resulting in establishing P outbound entanglement links with the next node;
• and
• upon determining which of the N outbound entanglement links are the P outbound entanglement links, entanglement-swapping the P outbound entanglement links with P inbound entanglement links of the M inbound entanglement links, to entangle the P outbound entanglement links with P inbound entanglement links.