Designing an Emulation Platform for Realistic Experimentation on Quantum Networks

Abstract

The realization of a Quantum Internet is expected to transform communication networks by enabling intrinsically secure information exchange and distributed quantum applications. However, the experi- mental study of large-scale quantum networks remains limited by the high cost and operational con- straints of quantum hardware. To address this challenge, this paper presents the design of a platform conceived to support research and experimentation in the field of quantum networking. The proposed system provides an emulation environment that mirrors the behavior of a real quantum network, en- abling researchers to test protocols and mechanisms through a set of quantum operation instructions accessible via an Application Programming Interface (API). Emulated quantum nodes can be deployed across physically distributed locations, using physical or virtual machines or virtualization containers, al- lowing experiments to reproduce realistic network conditions and inter-node interactions. This approach enables applications to be executed over a persistent, configurable, and interactive environment that in- tegrates both quantum and classical communication layers. To validate the feasibility of the proposed design, a prototype has been built and used to demonstrate its operation through a multi-hop quantum teleportation proof of concept. The results confirm the viability and flexibility of the architecture, laying the foundation for a distributed framework that facilitates the development and evaluation of quantum network architectures, control mechanisms, and experimental use cases.