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Welcome to The Quantum Protocol Zoo - Explore, Learn, Code and Implement Quantum Protocols

The quantum protocol zoo is an open repository of protocols for quantum networks. It provides a compact and canonical way to explore such protocols. Moreover, it allows for easy communication among computer scientists, engineers, and physicists on a single platform.

• About us
• Disclaimer
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Getting started

Quantum Protocol Zoo is a repository of protocols for quantum networks. It presents a wiki of protocols for various functionalities classified in terms of the network stages for a quantum internet. It is important to note that, although there are several different ways of defining a protocol, we characterise it as something that involves more than one party. In particular, we define a protocol as a sequence of steps, specifically designed to accomplish a task. It may or may not involve an algorithm and could be run between trusted parties as well as parties who don't trust each other.

The wiki consists of two types of pages: The first type is a functionality page, describing a general task which can be realised in a quantum network (the "what"). The second type of page is a protocol page, which describes a specific protocol implementing the defined functionality (the "how"). These pages are listed in Protocol Library. Furthermore, a page on Supplementary Information has been provided for background information about quantum theory. Any information on How to Submit or contact can be found in the Navigation Menu on the sidebar. Every page has a Discussion section, where users are welcome to leave their comments.

The goal

The goal of this project is multifold. First, it aims to provide a compact and precise review of all the existing protocols in one place, such that it is accessible to both the young researchers motivated to enter into the field as well as quantum enthusiasts. Second, our platform enables the experts from academia and industry to find real-life use cases for the listed protocols and at the same time innovate on (or compose) the existing ones to tailor-made new protocols for the desired task. Finally, our main intention is to also develop a standardised form for protocol descriptions to make the community quantum-internet ready. At the same time, we emphasise that our purpose is not to point out the strengths or weaknesses of any particular protocol or functionality.

As a direct consequence of this effort, hosting and analysing the protocols in this fashion provides an underlying link between several protocols and would enable everyone to gain a deeper understanding of their working. With the rapid progress in quantum technologies and improvements in the current protocols, it is extremely beneficial to have a resource for all the quantum protocols in one place that can be regularly updated to keep track of the advancements, something that can not be achieved with the review articles or a book. We, therefore, invite everyone from the quantum information science community to join and contribute to this initiative in collectively making the quantum protocol zoo a crucial source for quantum protocols.

Wonder what's the format for contribution?

We welcome contributions from various fields, here we give the format of the kinds of pages, the wiki is composed of. A more detailed set of guidelines for submissions can be found on the How to Submit page.

Functionality Page

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Functionality page describes a general task which can be realised in a quantum network (the "what"). It consists of the following sections.

• Functionality Description A lucid definition of functionality in discussion.

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• Tags Any related page or list of protocols is connected by this section

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• Use Case (if available) analyses how practical the protocol is, for industry use when compared to other alternatives. It answers the following questions:
  • Quantum or classical task?
  • Any classical or post-quantum secure analogue?
  • Benchmark values for key length, security parameters, threshold values, etc?
  • Scalability in terms of time, key length etc..
  • Real World Applications?

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• Protocols List of different types of example protocol achieving the functionality (each protocol in this list is written in the format given below) depending on the task achieved or Network Stages required to achieve the same functionality

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• Properties All properties that should be satisfied by any protocol achieving the concerned functionality and other common terminologies used in all the protocols.

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• Further Information Any issue that could not be addressed or find a place in the above sections or any review paper discussing a feature of various types of protocols related to the functionality.

Protocol Page

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Protocol page describes a specific protocol implementing the defined functionality (the "how"). It consists of the following sections.

• Link to the corresponding functionality together with a short description of the method used and properties satisfied by a protocol.

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• Tags Any related page or list of protocols is connected by this section

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• Assumptions It describes the setting in which the protocol will be successful. Any assumption on the setup for the protocol below is listed in this section.

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• Outline A non-mathematical detailed outline which provides a rough idea of the concerned protocol. A figure is accommodated for most protocols.

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• Notation Connects the non-mathematical outline with further sections.

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• Requirements
  • Network Stage
  • Relevant network parameters
  • Technology required by each party
  • Available information from implementations like the order of digits related to threshold values, QBit Error Rate (QBER), parameters, etc..

It accommodates a figure on the decomposition of the protocol into various components required for implementation including the physical resources, nodal subroutines, and other protocols used. Color Coding:

• • • The protocols are shown in a blue rectangular box.
    • The nodal subroutines are shown in a green rounded rectangular box.
    • The physical resources are shown in red ovals.

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• Properties A list of important information extracted from the protocol such as parameters (threshold values), security claim, success probability, etc..

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• Protocol Description Mathematical step-wise protocol algorithm helpful to write a subroutine.

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• Further Information Any useful information that could not find its place in the above description goes here. Also, some pages on protocols might include a short description as below for a list of protocols in the same class of functionality and network stage that are easy to interpret after reading the concerned formal description (or are variants of the protocol discussed above):
• Theoretical Papers:
  • How is it different from the above protocol
  • Requirements
  • Security
• Experimental Papers:
  • Which paper or protocol does it implement
  • Benchmark values for this demonstration