Quantum entanglement switches are a key building block for early quantum networks, and a central design question is whether near-term devices should use only flying photons or also incorporate quantum memories. We compare two architectures: an all-photonic entanglement generation switch (EGS) that repeatedly attempts Bell-state measurements (BSM) without storing qubits, and a quantum memory-equipped switch that buffers entanglement and triggers measurements only when heralded connectivity is available (herald-then-swap control). These two designs trade off simple, memoryless operation that avoids decoherence and memory-induced latency against heralding-based control that buffers entanglement to use BSMs more efficiently. We formalize both models under a common hardware abstraction and characterize their achievable rate-fidelity regions, yielding a benchmarking methodology that translates hardware and protocol parameters into network-level performance. Numerical evaluation quantifies the rate-fidelity tradeoffs of both models, identifies operating regions in which each architecture dominates, and shows how hardware and protocol knobs can be tuned to meet application-specific targets.

翻译：量子纠缠交换机是早期量子网络的关键构建模块，其核心设计问题在于近期设备应仅使用飞行光子还是同时结合量子存储器。我们比较了两种架构：一种是全光子纠缠生成交换机（EGS），它无需存储量子比特而反复尝试贝尔态测量（BSM）；另一种是配备量子存储器的交换机，它能缓冲纠缠态并仅在获得预示连通性时触发测量（先预示后交换控制）。这两种设计在以下方面进行权衡：一方面采用简单、无存储的操作以避免退相干和存储器引入的延迟，另一方面采用基于预示的控制来缓冲纠缠态以更高效地利用BSM。我们在统一的硬件抽象下形式化这两种模型，并刻画其可达的速率-保真度区域，从而建立一种将硬件和协议参数转化为网络级性能的基准测试方法。数值评估量化了两种模型的速率-保真度权衡，确定了每种架构占优的工作区域，并展示了如何调节硬件与协议参数以满足特定应用目标。