{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,20]],"date-time":"2026-03-20T13:11:04Z","timestamp":1774012264157,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":53,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,30]],"date-time":"2021-07-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1627603200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Future Internet"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The creation of the future quantum Internet requires the development of new systems, architectures, and communications protocols. As a matter of fact, the optical fiber technology is affected by extremely high losses; thus, the deployment of a quantum satellite network (QSN) composed of quantum satellite repeaters (QSRs) in low Earth orbit would make it possible to overcome these attenuation problems. For these reasons, we consider the design of an ad hoc quantum satellite backbone based on the Software-Defined Networking (SDN) paradigm with a modular two-tier Control Plane (CP). The first tier of the CP is embedded into a Master Control Station (MCS) on the ground, which coordinates the entire constellation and performs the management of the CP integrated into the constellation itself. This second tier is responsible for entanglement generation and management on the selected path. In addition to defining the SDN architecture in all its components, we present a possible protocol to generate entanglement on the end-to-end (E2E) path. Furthermore, we evaluate the performance of the developed protocol in terms of the latency required to establish entanglement between two ground stations connected via the quantum satellite backbone.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/fi13080196","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,30]],"date-time":"2021-07-30T12:59:24Z","timestamp":1627649964000},"page":"196","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":12,"title":["Towards the Quantum Internet: Satellite Control Plane Architectures and Protocol Design"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0267-4733","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Francesco","family":"Chiti","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Information Engineering, University of Florence, Via di Santa Marta 3, 50139 Firenze, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5934-3321","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Romano","family":"Fantacci","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Information Engineering, University of Florence, Via di Santa Marta 3, 50139 Firenze, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2532-854X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Roberto","family":"Picchi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Information Engineering, University of Florence, Via di Santa Marta 3, 50139 Firenze, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6271-7988","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Laura","family":"Pierucci","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Information Engineering, University of Florence, Via di Santa Marta 3, 50139 Firenze, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,30]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"eaam9288","DOI":"10.1126\/science.aam9288","article-title":"Quantum internet: A vision for the road ahead","volume":"362","author":"Wehner","year":"2018","journal-title":"Science"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"22299","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2017.2763325","article-title":"Optimal Routing for Quantum Networks","volume":"5","author":"Caleffi","year":"2017","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"865","DOI":"10.1103\/RevModPhys.81.865","article-title":"Quantum entanglement","volume":"81","author":"Horodecki","year":"2009","journal-title":"Rev. Mod. Phys."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"240403","DOI":"10.1103\/PhysRevLett.120.240403","article-title":"Indistinguishability of Elementary Systems as a Resource for Quantum Information Processing","volume":"120","author":"Franco","year":"2018","journal-title":"Phys. Rev. Lett."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1895","DOI":"10.1103\/PhysRevLett.70.1895","article-title":"Teleporting an unknown quantum state via dual classical and Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen channels","volume":"70","author":"Bennett","year":"1993","journal-title":"Phys. Rev. Lett."},{"key":"ref_6","first-page":"14","article-title":"A survey on quantum key distribution","volume":"11","author":"Bacsardi","year":"2019","journal-title":"Infocommun. J."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"096001","DOI":"10.1088\/0034-4885\/76\/9\/096001","article-title":"Distribution of entanglement in large-scale quantum networks","volume":"76","author":"Perseguers","year":"2013","journal-title":"Rep. Prog. Phys."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1109\/TQE.2021.3053921","article-title":"Compiler Design for Distributed Quantum Computing","volume":"2","author":"Ferrari","year":"2021","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Quantum Eng."},{"key":"ref_9","unstructured":"Wang, C., Rahman, A., Li, R., and Aelmans, M. (2021). Applications and Use Cases for the Quantum Internet. Internet-Draft draft-irtf-qirg-quantum-internet-use-cases-04, Internet Engineering Task Force, Unpublished work."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3","DOI":"10.1049\/iet-qtc.2020.0002","article-title":"Towards a distributed quantum computing ecosystem","volume":"1","author":"Cuomo","year":"2020","journal-title":"IET Quantum Commun."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"032325","DOI":"10.1103\/PhysRevA.79.032325","article-title":"Quantum repeater with encoding","volume":"79","author":"Jiang","year":"2009","journal-title":"Phys. Rev. A"},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"060502","DOI":"10.1103\/PhysRevLett.98.060502","article-title":"Multiplexed Memory-Insensitive Quantum Repeaters","volume":"98","author":"Collins","year":"2007","journal-title":"Phys. Rev. Lett."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"78","DOI":"10.1109\/JSTQE.2015.2392076","article-title":"Inside Quantum Repeaters","volume":"21","author":"Munro","year":"2015","journal-title":"IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"052032","DOI":"10.1088\/1742-6596\/1237\/5\/052032","article-title":"Research Progress Of Quantum Repeaters","volume":"1237","author":"Ruihong","year":"2019","journal-title":"J. Phys. Conf. Ser."},{"key":"ref_15","first-page":"1","article-title":"All-photonic quantum repeaters","volume":"6","author":"Azuma","year":"2015","journal-title":"Nat. Commun."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3891","DOI":"10.1103\/PhysRevLett.80.3891","article-title":"Experimental Entanglement Swapping: Entangling Photons That Never Interacted","volume":"80","author":"Pan","year":"1998","journal-title":"Phys. Rev. Lett."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"194","DOI":"10.1103\/PhysRevA.60.194","article-title":"Purification via entanglement swapping and conserved entanglement","volume":"60","author":"Bose","year":"1999","journal-title":"Phys. Rev. A"},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"9333","DOI":"10.1038\/srep09333","article-title":"Highly efficient entanglement swapping and teleportation at telecom wavelength","volume":"5","author":"Jin","year":"2015","journal-title":"Sci. Rep."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"50","DOI":"10.1109\/MCOM.2013.6576338","article-title":"On the way to quantum-based satellite communication","volume":"51","author":"Bacsardi","year":"2013","journal-title":"IEEE Commun. Mag."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"053830","DOI":"10.1103\/PhysRevA.99.053830","article-title":"Satellite-mediated quantum atmospheric links","volume":"99","author":"Vasylyev","year":"2019","journal-title":"Phys. Rev. A"},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"040502","DOI":"10.1103\/PhysRevLett.115.040502","article-title":"Experimental Satellite Quantum Communications","volume":"115","author":"Vallone","year":"2015","journal-title":"Phys. Rev. Lett."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"210370","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2020.3038529","article-title":"Towards Quantum Satellite Internetworking: A Software-Defined Networking Perspective","volume":"8","author":"Picchi","year":"2020","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"389","DOI":"10.1007\/s00778-007-0044-3","article-title":"Service oriented architectures: Approaches, technologies and research issues","volume":"16","author":"Papazoglou","year":"2007","journal-title":"VLDB J."},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Segura, R. (2008, January 16\u201319). Service-oriented architecture for coalition satellite communications. Proceedings of the MILCOM 2008\u20142008 IEEE Military Communications Conference, San Diego, CA, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/MILCOM.2008.4753324"},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Chiti, F., Fantacci, R., and Pierucci, L. (2019). Energy Efficient Communications for Reliable IoT Multicast 5G\/Satellite Services. Future Internet, 11.","DOI":"10.3390\/fi11080164"},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Pecorella, T., Pierucci, L., and Nizzi, F. (2018). \u201cNetwork Sentiment\u201d Framework to Improve Security and Privacy for Smart Home. Future Internet, 10.","DOI":"10.3390\/fi10120125"},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"O\u2019Brien, L., Merson, P., and Bass, L. (2007, January 20\u201326). Quality Attributes for Service-Oriented Architectures. Proceedings of the International Workshop on Systems Development in SOA Environments (SDSOA\u201907: ICSE Workshops 2007), Minneapolis, MN, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/SDSOA.2007.10"},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kozlowski, W., and Wehner, S. (2019, January 25\u201327). Towards Large-Scale Quantum Networks. Proceedings of the Sixth Annual ACM International Conference on Nanoscale Computing and Communication; Association for Computing Machinery, NANOCOM \u201919, Dublin, Ireland.","DOI":"10.1145\/3345312.3345497"},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"160501","DOI":"10.1103\/PhysRevLett.105.160501","article-title":"Hybrid Long-Distance Entanglement Distribution Protocol","volume":"105","author":"Brask","year":"2010","journal-title":"Phys. Rev. Lett."},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"R2493","DOI":"10.1103\/PhysRevA.52.R2493","article-title":"Scheme for reducing decoherence in quantum computer memory","volume":"52","author":"Shor","year":"1995","journal-title":"Phys. Rev. A"},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"042108","DOI":"10.1103\/PhysRevA.80.042108","article-title":"Quantum decoherence of two qubits","volume":"80","author":"Helm","year":"2009","journal-title":"Phys. Rev. A"},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"678","DOI":"10.1038\/s41566-017-0032-0","article-title":"Towards a global quantum network","volume":"11","author":"Simon","year":"2017","journal-title":"Nat. Photonics"},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"010304","DOI":"10.1103\/PRXQuantum.2.010304","article-title":"Satellite-Based Photonic Quantum Networks Are Small-World","volume":"2","author":"Brito","year":"2021","journal-title":"PRX Quantum"},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"030501","DOI":"10.1103\/PhysRevLett.120.030501","article-title":"Satellite-Relayed Intercontinental Quantum Network","volume":"120","author":"Liao","year":"2018","journal-title":"Phys. Rev. Lett."},{"key":"ref_35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"604","DOI":"10.11728\/cjss2018.05.604","article-title":"Progress of the Quantum Experiment Science Satellite (QUESS) Micius Project","volume":"38","author":"Jianwei","year":"2018","journal-title":"Chin. J. Space Sci."},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"7","DOI":"10.1016\/j.tcs.2014.05.025","article-title":"Quantum cryptography: Public key distribution and coin tossing","volume":"560","author":"Bennett","year":"2014","journal-title":"Theor. Comput. Sci."},{"key":"ref_37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"269","DOI":"10.1038\/nature11472","article-title":"Quantum teleportation over 143 kilometres using active feed-forward","volume":"489","author":"Ma","year":"2012","journal-title":"Nature"},{"key":"ref_38","unstructured":"Tom, G., Joel, B., and George, L. (2005). Analysis of Free Space Optics as a Transmission Technology, US Army Information Systems Engineering Command."},{"key":"ref_39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"881","DOI":"10.1109\/COMST.2018.2864557","article-title":"Satellite-Based Continuous-Variable Quantum Communications: State-of-the-Art and a Predictive Outlook","volume":"21","author":"Hosseinidehaj","year":"2019","journal-title":"IEEE Commun. Surv. Tutor."},{"key":"ref_40","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"63041N","DOI":"10.1117\/12.680824","article-title":"Broadband backhaul communication for stratospheric platforms: The stratospheric optical payload experiment (STROPEX)","volume":"Volume 6304","author":"Horwath","year":"2006","journal-title":"Free-Space Laser Communications VI"},{"key":"ref_41","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Toyoshima, M., Fuse, T., Carrasco-Casado, A., Kolev, D.R., Takenaka, H., Munemasa, Y., Suzuki, K., Koyama, Y., Kubo-oka, T., and Kunimori, H. (2017, January 14\u201316). Research and development on a hybrid high throughput satellite with an optical feeder link Study of a link budget analysis. Proceedings of the 2017 IEEE International Conference on Space Optical Systems and Applications (ICSOS), Naha, Japan.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICSOS.2017.8357424"},{"key":"ref_42","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bacsardi, L. (2018, January 21\u201323). Resources for Satellite-Based Quantum Communication Networks. Proceedings of the 2018 IEEE 22nd International Conference on Intelligent Engineering Systems (INES), Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain.","DOI":"10.1109\/INES.2018.8523885"},{"key":"ref_43","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"16087","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2020.2966683","article-title":"Quantum Key Distribution Over Double-Layer Quantum Satellite Networks","volume":"8","author":"Huang","year":"2020","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_44","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1038\/s41534-020-00327-5","article-title":"Spooky action at a global distance: Analysis of space-based entanglement distribution for the quantum internet","volume":"7","author":"Khatri","year":"2021","journal-title":"Npj Quantum Inf."},{"key":"ref_45","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Chiti, F., Fantacci, R., Picchi, R., and Pierucci, L. (2021, January 14\u201323). Quantum Satellite Backbone Networks Design and Performance Evaluation. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Communications, Montreal, QC, Canada.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICC42927.2021.9500327"},{"key":"ref_46","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"033003","DOI":"10.1088\/1367-2630\/ab05f7","article-title":"A quantum network stack and protocols for reliable entanglement-based networks","volume":"21","author":"Pirker","year":"2019","journal-title":"New J. Phys."},{"key":"ref_47","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Dahlberg, A., Skrzypczyk, M., Coopmans, T., Wubben, L., Rozpundefineddek, F., Pompili, M., Stolk, A., Pawe\u0142czak, P., Knegjens, R., and de Oliveira Filho, J. (2019, January 9\u201324). A Link Layer Protocol for Quantum Networks. Proceedings of the ACM Special Interest Group on Data Communication SIGCOMM \u201919, New York, NY, USA.","DOI":"10.1145\/3341302.3342070"},{"key":"ref_48","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"64","DOI":"10.1109\/MCOM.2013.6576340","article-title":"Designing quantum repeater networks","volume":"51","author":"Meter","year":"2013","journal-title":"IEEE Commun. Mag."},{"key":"ref_49","unstructured":"Kozlowski, W., Wehner, S., Meter, R.V., Rijsman, B., Cacciapuoti, A.S., Caleffi, M., and Nagayama, S. (2021). Architectural Principles for a Quantum Internet. Internet-Draft draft-irtf-qirg-principles-06, Internet Engineering Task Force, Unpublished work."},{"key":"ref_50","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"792","DOI":"10.1038\/nphoton.2010.213","article-title":"From quantum multiplexing to high-performance quantum networking","volume":"4","author":"Munro","year":"2010","journal-title":"Nat. Photonics"},{"key":"ref_51","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"012172","DOI":"10.1088\/1742-6596\/1634\/1\/012172","article-title":"Methods of Generating Entangled Photon Pairs","volume":"1634","author":"Li","year":"2020","journal-title":"J. Phys. Conf. Ser."},{"key":"ref_52","unstructured":"(2021, July 03). Norad Two-Line Element Sets Current Data. Available online: https:\/\/celestrak.com\/NORAD\/elements\/."},{"key":"ref_53","unstructured":"Vallado, D.A., and Cefola, P.J. (2012, January 1\u20135). Two-line element sets-practice and use. Proceedings of the 63rd International Astronautical Congress, Naples, Italy."}],"container-title":["Future Internet"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1999-5903\/13\/8\/196\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T06:37:22Z","timestamp":1760164642000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1999-5903\/13\/8\/196"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,30]]},"references-count":53,"journal-issue":{"issue":"8","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,8]]}},"alternative-id":["fi13080196"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/fi13080196","relation":{},"ISSN":["1999-5903"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1999-5903","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,30]]}}}