Generating and distributing remote entangled pairs (EPs) is a primary function of quantum networks, as entanglement is the fundamental resource for key quantum network applications. A critical performance metric for quantum networks is the time-to-serve (TTS) for users' EP requests, which is the time to distribute EPs between the requested nodes. Minimizing the TTS is essential given the limited qubit coherence time. In this paper, we study the Adaptive Continuous entanglement generation Protocol (ACP), which enables quantum network nodes to continuously generate EPs with their neighbors, while adaptively selecting the neighbors to optimize TTS. Meanwhile, entanglement purification is used to mitigate decoherence in pre-generated EPs prior to the arrival of user requests. We extend the SeQUeNCe simulator to fully implement ACP and conduct extensive simulations across various network scales. Our results show that ACP reduces TTS by up to 94% and increases entanglement fidelity by up to 0.05.

翻译：生成和分发远程纠缠对是量子网络的一项基本功能，因为纠缠是实现关键量子网络应用的基础资源。量子网络的一个关键性能指标是用户纠缠对请求的服务时间，即所请求节点间分发纠缠对所需的时间。鉴于量子比特有限的相干时间，最小化服务时间至关重要。本文研究自适应连续纠缠生成协议，该协议使量子网络节点能够与相邻节点持续生成纠缠对，同时自适应选择相邻节点以优化服务时间。此外，在用户请求到达前，采用纠缠纯化技术缓解预生成纠缠对的退相干效应。我们扩展了SeQUeNCe模拟器以完整实现该协议，并在不同网络规模下进行了大量仿真。结果表明，该协议可将服务时间降低高达94%，并将纠缠保真度提升高达0.05。