arXiv subjects

Claudio Cicconetti

Publications and source records attributed to Claudio Cicconetti.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Photon-efficient quantum repeater chains via hyperentanglement-assisted purification

Linear quantum repeater chains based on Werner-state purification (the BBPSSW protocol) and entanglement swapping (the BDCZ scheme) are fundamental to entanglement distribution in quantum networks. However, they operate under a stringent operation reliability threshold and rely on resource-intensive recurrence purification rounds, each consuming two entangled pairs to probabilistically produce one. In the literature, hyperentanglement has been proposed to exploit multiple degrees of freedom (DOF), such as polarisation and spatial modes, to encode independent entangled states within a single photon pair. This has led to the definition of DAEPP (DOF-Assisted Entanglement Purification Protocol), which we propose to integrate with the BDCZ scheme, resulting in a chain protocol that we call DAHR (DOF-Assisted Hyperentanglement Repeater). The DAEPP step distils the fidelity of a DOF by consuming other(s). In this work, we propose and analyse a DAHR variant which integrates DAEPP at every segment of an end-to-end path combined with BDCZ. We derive a closed-form end-to-end fidelity recursion that embeds single-segment DAEPP into the BDCZ scheme and give a strict resource lower bound for any BDCZ baseline utilising BBPSSW purification to match DAHR's per-segment effective fidelity. At a representative asymmetric operating point informed by prior experiment, we show numerically that matching DAHR's single-photon-pair performance requires two to three rounds of BBPSSW purification. Additionally, below a critical operation reliability, no amount of BBPSSW rounds matches DAHR's one DAEPP round performance.

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arXiv2026

Optimal Calibration of Quantum Network Links

The reliable distribution of entanglement is essential for the effective operation of quantum networks. Due to fundamental differences between quantum and classical communication systems, it is necessary to develop specialised algorithms and protocols that also account for quantum-specific constraints. In this work, we focus on the issue of recalibration. As suggested by recent experimental studies, the process of local entanglement generation in a quantum link degrades over time due to environmental changes that have to be estimated and compensated via a calibration operation, during which the link is not available. Therefore, in such a quantum network, every link alternates between an activation period, during which it operates normally, and a calibration period, during which it cannot participate in the end-to-end entanglement distribution, thereby creating a trade-off between link quality (the fidelity of generated pairs, which decays during activation) and availability (the fraction of time the link is usable, which calibration reduces). We develop analytically a protocol for optimally assigning activation periods to each link in linear quantum repeater chains, subject to any general end-to-end fidelity requirements and local initial fidelity thresholds. Building on this foundation, we extend to general quantum networks, where multiple paths may cross at common links, proposing a heuristic approach evaluated in simulations and compared with a benchmark, numerical approach, and theoretical bounds.

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arXiv2026

Dynamic Entanglement Packet Scheduling for Quantum Networks

Sharing entanglement among multiple users remains a central challenge for scalable quantum networks. Recent work proposed an on-demand entanglement packet architecture in which a controller uses a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) approach to allocate network resources. Quantum nodes are assigned a periodic schedule that probabilistically fulfills application requests for end-to-end entanglements. The schedule is recomputed periodically using well-known algorithms, such as Earliest Deadline First (EDF). However, a static schedule offers limited flexibility when outcomes are stochastic and arrivals are asynchronous. To overcome this limitation, we propose an online scheduler that dynamically schedules, defers, retries, or drops entanglement distribution reservations. In our simulations, the dynamic scheduler achieves lower completion time, higher completion ratio, and higher throughput than the static baseline. Furthermore, when the network is overloaded, the dynamic scheduler continues to construct deadline-feasible schedules and degrades gracefully.

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arXiv2026

HOPPER: A Hop-by-hop Entanglement Distribution Protocol for Asynchronous Quantum Networks

The quantum Internet relies on the ability to distribute entangled quantum bits (ebits) between quantum memories at the end nodes, to perform applications like blind or distributed quantum computing that are impossible if end nodes are connected via a classical, i.e., non-quantum network. This need creates new challenges due to the fragile nature of entanglement, which decoheres over short timescales and cannot be amplified, buffered, or retransmitted. Two broad categories of approaches have been proposed in the scientific literature to realize such an entanglement distribution in a given path: one relying on a synchronous time-slotted model, and another one where intermediate nodes interact asynchronously. However, both of them implicitly assume a serial operation, where one ebit is established and made available to the application on end nodes before creating a new one. This is inefficient in long-range networks, with high transmission latencies, if the intermediate nodes have multiple memory qubits that could be used in parallel. To overcome this limitation, in this paper, we study the implications of multiplexing concurrent ebit requests on the same quantum, for both synchronous and asynchronous operation. Furthermore, for the latter, we define a novel distribution protocol, called HOPPER, where the intermediate nodes make autonomous and hop-by-hop decisions on the use of their local resources when establishing an ebit. With numerical simulations, we show that HOPPER is effective in handling multiple ebit requests in parallel, and it exhibits significantly better performance than a synchronous alternative in different scenarios.

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arXiv2026

Instruction-Set Architecture for Programmable NV-Center Quantum Repeater Nodes

Programmability is increasingly central in emerging quantum network software stacks, yet the node-internal controller-to-hardware interface for quantum repeater devices remains under-specified. We introduce the idea of an instruction-set architecture (ISA) for controller-driven programmability of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center quantum repeater nodes. Each node consists of an optically interfaced electron spin acting as a data qubit and a long-lived nuclear-spin register acting as a control program. We formalize two modes of programmability: (i) deterministic register control, where the nuclear register is initialized in a basis state to select a specific operation on the data qubit; and (ii) coherent register control, where the register is prepared in superposition, enabling coherent combinations of operations beyond classical programmability. Network protocols are expressed as controller-issued instruction vectors, which we illustrate through a compact realization of the BBPSSW purification protocol. We further show that coherent register control enables interferometric diagnostics such as fidelity witnessing and calibration, providing tools unavailable in classical programmability. Finally, we discuss scalability to multi-electron and multi-nuclear spin architectures and connection to Linear combination of unitaries (LCU) and Kraus formulation.

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arXiv2025

Uncoordinated Access to Serverless Computing in MEC Systems for IoT

Edge computing is a promising solution to enable low-latency IoT applications, by shifting computation from remote data centers to local devices, less powerful but closer to the end user devices. However, this creates the challenge on how to best assign clients to edge nodes offering compute capabilities. So far, two antithetical architectures are proposed: centralized resource orchestration or distributed overlay. In this work we explore a third way, called uncoordinated access, which consists in letting every device exploring multiple opportunities, to opportunistically embrace the heterogeneity of network and load conditions towards diverse edge nodes. In particular, our contribution is intended for emerging serverless IoT applications, which do not have a state on the edge nodes executing tasks. We model the proposed system as a set of M/M/1 queues and show that it achieves a smaller jitter delay than single edge node allocation. Furthermore, we compare uncoordinated access with state-of-the-art centralized and distributed alternatives in testbed experiments under more realistic conditions. Based on the results, our proposed approach, which requires a tiny fraction of the complexity of the alternatives in both the device and network components, is very effective in using the network resources, while incurring only a small penalty in terms of increased compute load and high percentiles of delay.

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arXiv2025

Quantum Internet: Technologies, Protocols, and Research Challenges

As the field of the quantum internet advances, a comprehensive guide to navigate its complexities has become increasingly crucial. While quantum computing shares foundational principles with the quantum internet, distinguishing between the two is essential for further development and deeper understanding. This work systematically introduces the quantum internet by discussing its importance, core components, operational mechanisms, anticipated timeline for viability, key contributors, major challenges, and future directions. Additionally, it presents the fundamental concepts of quantum mechanics that underpin the technology, offering a clear and targeted overview intended for researchers and industry professionals and laying the groundwork for future innovations and research in the field.

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arXiv2024

Routing in Quantum Networks with End-to-End Knowledge

Given the diverse array of physical systems available for quantum computing and the absence of a well-defined quantum internet protocol stack, the design and optimisation of quantum networking protocols remain largely unexplored. To address this, we introduce an approach that facilitates the establishment of paths capable of delivering end-to-end fidelity above a specified threshold, without requiring detailed knowledge of the quantum network properties. In this study, we define algorithms that are specific instances of this approach and evaluate them in comparison to Dijkstra shortest path algorithm and a fully knowledge-aware algorithm through simulations. Our results demonstrate that one of the proposed algorithms consistently outperforms the other methods in delivering paths above the fidelity threshold, across various network topologies and the number of source-destination pairs involved, while maintaining significant levels of fairness among the users and being robust to inaccurate estimations of the expected end-to-end fidelity.

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arXiv2024

Quantum-safe Edge Applications: How to Secure Computation in Distributed Computing Systems

The advent of distributed computing systems will offer great flexibility for application workloads, while also imposing more attention to security, where the future advent and adoption of quantum technology can introduce new security threats. For this reason, the Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) working group at ETSI has recently started delving into security aspects, especially motivated by the upcoming reality of the MEC federation, which involves services made of application instances belonging to different systems (thus, different trust domains). On the other side, Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) can help strengthen the level of security by enabling the exchange of secure keys through an unconditionally secure protocol, e.g., to secure communication between REST clients and servers in distributed computing systems at the edge. In this paper, we propose a technical solution to achieve this goal, building on standard specifications, namely ETSI MEC and ETSI QKD, and discussing the gaps and limitations of current technology, which hamper full-fledged in-field deployment and mass adoption. Furthermore, we provide our look-ahead view on the future of secure distributed computing through the enticing option of federating edge computing domains.

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arXiv2024

Energy-Efficient Deployment of Stateful FaaS Vertical Applications on Edge Data Networks

5G and beyond support the deployment of vertical applications, which is particularly appealing in combination with network slicing and edge computing to create a logically isolated environment for executing customer services. Even if serverless computing has gained significant interest as a cloud-native technology its adoption at the edge is lagging, especially because of the need to support stateful tasks, which are commonplace in, e.g., cognitive services, but not fully amenable to being deployed on limited and decentralized computing infrastructures. In this work, we study the emerging paradigm of stateful Function as a Service (FaaS) with lightweight task abstractions in WebAssembly. Specifically, we assess the implications of deploying inter-dependent tasks with an internal state on edge computing resources using a stateless vs. stateful approach and then derive a mathematical model to estimate the energy consumption of a workload with given characteristics, considering the power used for both processing and communication. The model is used in extensive simulations to determine the impact of key factors and assess the energy trade-offs of stateless vs. stateful.

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arXiv2023

Routing in Quantum Repeater Networks with Mixed Efficiency Figures

This study explores an approach to routing in quantum networks, which targets practical scenarios for quantum networks, mirroring real-world classical networks. By addressing practical constraints, we examine the impact of heterogeneous nodes with mixed efficiency figures on quantum network performance. In particular, we focus on some key parameters in an operational quantum network such as the fraction of nodes with a higher efficiency (called high-quality), path establishment order, end-to-end fidelity, i.e., a measure of the quality of the end-to-end entanglement established. Our simulations show that incorporating knowledge of node quality not only helps boost the fidelity of some of the routing paths but also reduces the number of blocked paths in the quantum network. The study also highlights the critical role of the fraction of high-quality nodes in end-to-end fidelity and explores the trade-offs between upgrading all nodes to high quality or retaining a subset of lower-quality nodes.

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arXiv2023

Measurement-Driven Design and Runtime Optimization in Edge Computing: Methodology and Tools

Edge computing is projected to become the dominant form of cloud computing in the future because of the significant advantages it brings to both users (less latency, higher throughput) and telecom operators (less Internet traffic, more local management). However, to fully unlock its potential at scale, system designers and automated optimization systems alike will have to monitor closely the dynamics of both processing and communication facilities. Especially the latter is often neglected in current systems since network performance in cloud computing plays only a minor role. In this paper, we propose the architecture of MECPerf, which is a solution to collect network measurements in a live edge computing domain, to be collected for offline provisioning analysis and simulations, or to be provided in real-time for on-line system optimization. MECPerf has been validated in a realistic testbed funded by the European Commission (Fed4Fire+), and we describe here a summary of the results, which are fully available as open data and through a Python library to expedite their utilization. This is demonstrated via a use case involving the optimization of a system parameter for migrating clients in a federated edge computing system adopting the GSMA platform operator concept.

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arXiv2023

Qkd@Edge: Online Admission Control of Edge Applications with QKD-secured Communications

Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) enables secure communications via the exchange of cryptographic keys exploiting the properties of quantum mechanics. Nowadays the related technology is mature enough for production systems, thus field deployments of QKD networks are expected to appear in the near future, starting from local/metropolitan settings, where edge computing is already a thriving reality. In this paper, we investigate the interplay of resource allocation in the QKD network vs. edge nodes, which creates unique research challenges. After modeling mathematically the problem, we propose practical online policies for admitting edge application requests, which also select the edge node for processing and the path in the QKD network. Our simulation results provide initial insights into this emerging topic and lead the way to upcoming studies on the subject.

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arXiv2023

Service Differentiation and Fair Sharing in Distributed Quantum Computing

In the future, quantum computers will become widespread and a network of quantum repeaters will provide them with end-to-end entanglement of remote quantum bits. As a result, a pervasive quantum computation infrastructure will emerge, which will unlock several novel applications, including distributed quantum computing, that is the pooling of resources on multiple computation nodes to address problem instances that are unattainable by any individual quantum computer. In this paper, we first investigate the issue of service differentiation in this new environment. Then, we define the problem of how to select which computation nodes should participate in each pool, so as to achieve a fair share of the quantum network resources available. The analysis is performed via an open source simulator and the results are fully and readily available.

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arXiv2022

In-Network Computing With Function as a Service at the Edge

Offloading computation from user devices to nodes with processing capabilities at the edge of the network is a major trend in today's network/service architectures. At the same time, serverless computing has gained a huge traction among the cloud computing technologies and has, thus, promoted the adoption of Function-as-a-Service (FaaS). The latter has some characteristics that make it generally suitable to edge applications, except for its cumbersome support of stateful applications. This work is set to provide a broad view on the options available for supporting stateful FaaS, which are distilled into four reference execution models that differ on where the state resides. While further investigation is needed to advance our understanding of the opportunities offered by in-network computing through stateful FaaS, initial insights are provided by means of a qualitative analysis of the four alternatives and their quantitative comparison in a simulator.

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arXiv2022

FaaS Execution Models for Edge Applications

In this paper, we address the problem of supporting stateful workflows following a Function-as-a-Service (FaaS) model in edge networks. In particular we focus on the problem of data transfer, which can be a performance bottleneck due to the limited speed of communication links in some edge scenarios and we propose three different schemes: a pure FaaS implementation, StateProp, i.e., propagation of the application state throughout the entire chain of functions, and StateLocal, i.e., a solution where the state is kept local to the workers that run functions and retrieved only as needed. We then extend the proposed schemes to the more general case of applications modeled as Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs), which cover a broad range of practical applications, e.g., in the Internet of Things (IoT) area. Our contribution is validated via a prototype implementation. Experiments in emulated conditions show that applying the data locality principle reduces significantly the volume of network traffic required and improves the end-to-end delay performance, especially with local caching on edge nodes and low link speeds.

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arXiv2022

Design Guidelines for Apache Kafka Driven Data Management and Distribution in Smart Cities

Smart city management is going through a remarkable transition, in terms of quality and diversity of services provided to the end-users. The stakeholders that deliver pervasive applications are now able to address fundamental challenges in the big data value chain, from data acquisition, data analysis and processing, data storage and curation, and data visualisation in real scenarios. Industry 4.0 is pushing this trend forward, demanding for servitization of products and data, also for the smart cities sector where humans, sensors and devices are operating in strict collaboration. The data produced by the ubiquitous devices must be processed quickly to allow the implementation of reactive services such as situational awareness, video surveillance and geo-localization, while always ensuring the safety and privacy of involved citizens. This paper proposes a modular architecture to (i) leverage innovative technologies for data acquisition, management and distribution (such as Apache Kafka and Apache NiFi), (ii) develop a multi-layer engineering solution for revealing valuable and hidden societal knowledge in smart cities environment, and (iii) tackle the main issues in tasks involving complex data flows and provide general guidelines to solve them. We derived some guidelines from an experimental setting performed together with leading industrial technical departments to accomplish an efficient system for monitoring and servitization of smart city assets, with a scalable platform that confirms its usefulness in numerous smart city use cases with different needs.

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arXiv2022

Quality of Service in Quantum Networks

In the coming years, quantum networks will allow quantum applications to thrive thanks to the new opportunities offered by end-to-end entanglement of qubits on remote hosts via quantum repeaters. On a geographical scale, this will lead to the dawn of the Quantum Internet. While a full-blown deployment is yet to come, the research community is already working on a variety of individual enabling technologies and solutions. In this paper, with the guidance of extensive simulations, we take a broader view and investigate the problems of Quality of Service (QoS) and provisioning in the context of quantum networks, which are very different from their counterparts in classical data networks due to some of their fundamental properties. Our work leads the way towards a new class of studies that will allow the research community to better understand the challenges of quantum networks and their potential commercial exploitation.

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