Capacity of a continuously distributed quantum network

Abstract

This paper investigates the capacity of a continuously distributed quantum network. A mathematical model of a multihop quantum communication process is given for capacity analysis. Our model assumes $n$ nodes in a unit square, and both a capacity upper bound for arbitrarily distributed quantum networks and a constructed capacity lower bound for randomly distributed quantum networks are obtained as $n\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$. According to our results, the capacity in arbitrarily distributed networks is proportional to $n$ while capacity in randomly distributed networks is independent of $n$. Moreover, our findings exhibit the bounds on quantum network capacity and could open a door to performance analysis for future quantum networking.