Quantum Internet Architecture: Unlocking Quantum-Native Routing via Quantum Addressing

The key objective of the Quantum Internet is the distribution and manipulation of entanglement to enable unprecedented applications. This requires a radical departure from classical Internet design principles, such as the end-to-end argument, due to the inherently stateful and non-local nature of entanglement, which demands coordinated in-network operations and persistent state awareness. To this end, we propose a novel hierarchical Quantum Internet architecture centered on the concept of Entanglement-Defined Controller (EDC). This architectural design constitutes the foundational layer, by enabling a clear separation between control and data planes. While necessary, this separation is insufficient to manage entanglement resources, requiring a quantum-native control plane. Consequently, we propose a quantum addressing scheme that embeds quantumness directly into node identifiers, allowing the network to natively track and manipulate entanglement as a dynamic resource. Built upon these two interdependent pillars–EDC-based architecture and quantum addressing–we design a quantum-native routing protocol that achieves scalability through compact routing tables, by efficiently operating over entanglement-defined topologies. Finally, we design a quantum address splitting functionality based on Schrödinger’s oracles that generalizes classical match-and-forward logic to the quantum domain. Collectively, these contributions demonstrate, for the first time, the fundamental advantages of quantum-by-design network control for enabling scalable quantum networking.