An extensible control plane software architecture for quantum networking research

As quantum networking experiments move from laboratory experiments to larger scale deployments, integrated control software becomes essential for managing complex interactions between the numerous distributed resources involved. While a number of laboratory-scale control systems have been developed for specific quantum platform demonstrations, an openly available and general solution for operating quantum networks has not emerged. With the QUANT-NET Control Plane (QNCP), we introduce a model-based, extensible control plane implementation that offers a framework for enabling network-wide orchestration in quantum information network environments. QCNP provides a quantum network data model, resource management, communication primitives, and a plugin interface for defining orchestration and protocol interactions across distributed quantum network devices and services. This paper describes the design and architecture of QNCP, its implementation, and opportunities for extensibility and deployment.