Strategies for entanglement distribution in optical fiber networks

Distributing entanglement over long distances remains a challenge due to its fragility when exposed to environmental effects. In this work, we compare various entanglement distribution protocols in a realistic noisy fiber network. We focus specifically on two schemes that only require the sending of a nonentangled carrier photon to remote nodes of the network. These protocols rely on optical / gates, and we vary the probability with which they can be successfully performed. Encoding our entangled states in photon polarization, we analyze the effect of depolarizing noise on the photonic states as the carrier passes through the fibers. Building a robust model of photon loss and calculating the distillable entanglement of the noisy states, we find the entanglement distribution rate. We discover that methods involving a separable carrier can reach a higher rate than the standard entanglement distribution protocol, provided that the success probability of the optical / gates is sufficiently high.