Impact of Topology on Multipartite Entanglement Distribution Protocols in Quantum Networks

Quantum Physics [Submitted on 26 Mar 2026] Impact of Topology on Multipartite Entanglement Distribution Protocols in Quantum Networks Jazz E. Z. Ooi, Evan Sutcliffe, Alejandra Beghelli Quantum networks will rely on entanglement distribution to enable multi-user applications such as distributed quantum computing and cryptography. While multipartite entanglement distribution routing protocols have been extensively studied on idealised grid topologies, less is understood about how real network structure shapes their performance and resource requirements. We present a systematic study of four routing protocols for multipartite entanglement distribution, each characterised by the number of paths (single-path and multi-path) and routing strategy (star-based and tree-based), over 81 real network topologies. We identified four distinct topology-dependent performance regimes, where: (i) all protocols perform poorly, (ii) tree-based protocols dominate, (iii) multi-path protocols dominate, or (iv) all protocols perform well. By correlating clusters with graph metrics, we also provide structural explanations for the varied performance of specific protocols. Additionally, motivated by the anticipated high cost of repeaters, we investigated the impact of repeater trimming on the performance of multi-path protocols. Topology strongly governs how far repeater nodes can be removed from the network while maintaining a given performance (distribution rate). For instance, in networks where only 80% of nodes operate as repeaters, well-performing topologies are able to retain over 90% of the distribution rate; whereas sparse, weakly connected graphs exhibit rapid performance degradation, retaining less than half of the distribution rate. Our results provide a topology-aware framework for protocol selection and infrastructure optimisation in future quantum networks, bridging routing design with cost-aware deployment strategies. Comments: 10 pages, 14 figures, 4 tables Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph) Cite as: arXiv:2603.25920 [quant-ph]   (or arXiv:2603.25920v1 [quant-ph] for this version)   https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2603.25920 Focus to learn more Submission history From: Evan Sutcliffe [view email] [v1] Thu, 26 Mar 2026 21:21:18 UTC (2,065 KB) Access Paper: HTML (experimental) view license Current browse context: quant-ph < prev   |   next > new | recent | 2026-03 References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADS Google Scholar Semantic Scholar Export BibTeX Citation Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Demos Related Papers About arXivLabs Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)