Selecting and Developing a Quantum Internet Simulator for the Needs of New Audience: Practices and Considerations

Abstract

The Quantum Internet is a revolutionary technology that aims to enhance the capabilities of the Classical Internet and enable new tasks that are not possible through classical communication. However, with numerous proposed designs and applications, selecting an appropriate simulator or constructing a new one can be challenging for the needs of education or training purpose. To address this issue, this research provides guidance on selecting a suitable Quantum Internet simulator and identifies essential functionalities for developing a new one. The study assesses 13 opensource simulators and offers advice for selecting a simulator based on the user’s needs, including beginners for learning purposes, intermediate users for integration purposes, and advanced users for constructing a new high-performance simulator. Additionally, this study recommends programming skills and libraries, such as utilizing Python/Julia for scenario scripts, GPU toolkits for matrix operations, and C/C++ as an interface for linking various programming languages. This study also provides practical examples, including technical details, of a basic quantum internet simulator that utilizes GPU acceleration. These skills and libraries can help users construct and customize a Quantum Internet simulator that fits their specific needs.

Keywords

• Distributed quantum computing
• quantum internet
• quantum key distribution
• simulator