[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-84847-en":3,"doc-seo-84847-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":91},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":21,"is_downloadable":21,"audit_status":21,"page_count":22,"language":23,"language_code":24,"site_id":25,"html_lang":24,"table_of_contents":26,"faqs":27,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},84847,8796095462418,"Noah","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/80000253c1241d02b47?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1778826106357471780",8,"Research & Report","Towards Quantum Network Performance Metrics Challenges and Demonstration","As quantum networks advance toward practical deployment, standardized performance monitoring is essential for maintaining reliable entanglement-based communication. The work proposes a structured monitoring framework with defined performance metrics covering quality (entanglement fidelity, QBER, loss, dark count rate), throughput and latency (entanglement rate, waiting time), and timing (coincidence window, production/coincidence jitter), plus exogenous disturbances such as temperature, humidity, and vibrations. Real-time observability supports benchmarking, fault diagnosis, adaptive timing, and entanglement routing, demonstrated via a non-invasive environmental monitoring prototype integrated at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, along with discussion of monitoring challenges and observability–performance trade-offs.","Towards Quantum Network Performance Metrics: Challenges and Demonstration  \nMohamed Shabana,b,∗ , Mariam Kiranc and Muhammad Ismaila  \na Cybersecurity Education, Research, and Outreach Center (CEROC), Tennessee Tech University, Cookeville, 38505, Tennessee, USA b Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Education, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt  \nc Quantum Communications and Networking, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, 37830, Tennessee, USA  \n\n| ARTICLE INFO |  | AB STRACT |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Keywords:\u003Cbr>quantum networks entanglement distribution quantum network monitoring quantum performance metrics\u003Cbr>quantum observability\u003Cbr>quantum communication testbeds\u003Cbr>quantum network control\u003Cbr>software defined quantum networks |  | As quantum networks move toward practical deployment, standardized performance monitoring becomes essential. This article proposes a structured monitoring framework for quantum networks with performance metrics, including quality (e.g., entanglement fidelity, QBER, loss, dark count rate), throughput and latency (e.g., entanglement rate, waiting time), timing (e.g., coincidence window, production and coincidence jitter), and exogenous factors (e.g., temperature, humidity, vibrations) . These measurements enable real-time observability, benchmarking, and control, supporting use cases such as fault diagnosis, adaptive timing, and entanglement routing. Additionally, we implement a non-invasive prototype environmental monitoring system integrated with the quantum network infrastructure at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, demonstrating practical feasibility of live data collection and alert generation. Furthermore, we discuss the challenges of real-time monitoring and the trade-offs between observability and system performance. This work establishes a foundation for developing advanced quantum network monitoring systems and lays the groundwork for future autonomous control and quantum software-defined networking. |\n\n1. Introduction  \nQuantum networks are essential to enable critical applications, such as distributed quantum computing, distributed quantum sensing, secure communication, and quantum key distribution (QKD) [15, 10, 18, 22], unlike classical networks, quantum networks rely on entangled pairs to perform tasks [22], making these networks highly sensitive to environmental noise and fluctuations, making performance monitoring challenging.  \nHere, we present a comparison of traditional classical and quantum performance metrics, such as latency, packet loss, and throughput and how to capture the behavior of quantum communications. Further, for example, entanglement fidelity quantifies how closely a shared quantum state approximates the ideal maximally entangled state, does not exist in classical networks. Classical communication links carry bits, not entangled quantum states, so classical network quality is measured by metrics like throughput (bits/sec), latency, or packet loss, none of which capture the quantum correlation quality that fidelity measures.  \nClassical and quantum networks even define throughput differently. In classical networks, throughput reflects the raw data transmission rate. In contrast, quantum networks define throughput as the number of entangled pairs delivered per second at or above a specified fidelity threshold [3] . In other words, a quantum link is not characterized only by the number of qubits transmitted, but by the quality of the entanglement those qubits maintain. Also, the latency in quantum networks cannot be defined as the time it takes for  \n∗Corresponding author  \n [mshaban@tntech.edu](mshaban@tntech.edu) (M. Shaban); [kiranm@ornl.gov](kiranm@ornl.gov) (M. Kiran); [mismail@tntech.edu](mismail@tntech.edu) (M. Ismail)  \nORCID(s):  \ndata to travel across the network, as described in classical networks. This is because generating an entangled pair is a probabilistic process that requires several trials and depends on whether entanglement purification (","cbCaif4TObYhvFE3","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaif4TObYhvFE3","pdf",13984750,3,1,13,"English","en",105,"# Introduction\n## Related Work","[{\"question\":\"Why is performance monitoring more challenging in quantum networks than in classical networks?\",\"answer\":\"Quantum networks rely on entangled pairs, which are highly sensitive to environmental noise and fluctuations. This makes key behaviors harder to characterize with the same deterministic metrics used in classical networking.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the document define throughput and latency differently for quantum networks?\",\"answer\":\"Throughput in quantum networks is defined as the number of entangled pairs delivered per second at or above a fidelity threshold. Latency is not treated as a fixed travel time because entanglement generation is probabilistic, so waiting time is random and depends on trials and purification.\"},{\"question\":\"What measurements are proposed to enable real-time observability and control?\",\"answer\":\"The framework includes quality metrics such as entanglement fidelity, QBER, loss, and dark count rate; throughput and latency metrics like entanglement rate and waiting time; timing metrics such as coincidence window and jitter; and exogenous factors like temperature, humidity, and vibrations.\"}]",1784198786,33,{"code":4,"msg":31,"data":32},"ok",{"site_id":25,"language":24,"slug":33,"title":13,"keywords":34,"description":14,"schema_data":35,"social_meta":86,"head_meta":88,"extra_data":90,"updated_unix":28},"towards-quantum-network-performance-metrics-challenges-and-demonstration","",{"@graph":36,"@context":85},[37,53,68],{"@type":38,"itemListElement":39},"BreadcrumbList",[40,44,48,50],{"item":41,"name":42,"@type":43,"position":21},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":45,"name":46,"@type":43,"position":47},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":49,"name":12,"@type":43,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",{"item":51,"name":13,"@type":43,"position":52},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/towards-quantum-network-performance-metrics-challenges-and-demonstration/84847/",4,{"url":51,"name":13,"@type":54,"author":55,"headline":13,"publisher":57,"fileFormat":60,"inLanguage":24,"description":14,"dateModified":61,"datePublished":62,"encodingFormat":60,"isAccessibleForFree":63,"interactionStatistic":64},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":56},"Person",{"url":41,"name":58,"@type":59},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-07-23","2026-07-16",true,{"@type":65,"interactionType":66,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":67},"ViewAction",{"@type":69,"mainEntity":70},"FAQPage",[71,77,81],{"name":72,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":74},"Why is performance monitoring more challenging in quantum networks than in classical networks?","Question",{"text":75,"@type":76},"Quantum networks rely on entangled pairs, which are highly sensitive to environmental noise and fluctuations. This makes key behaviors harder to characterize with the same deterministic metrics used in classical networking.","Answer",{"name":78,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":79},"How does the document define throughput and latency differently for quantum networks?",{"text":80,"@type":76},"Throughput in quantum networks is defined as the number of entangled pairs delivered per second at or above a fidelity threshold. Latency is not treated as a fixed travel time because entanglement generation is probabilistic, so waiting time is random and depends on trials and purification.",{"name":82,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":83},"What measurements are proposed to enable real-time observability and control?",{"text":84,"@type":76},"The framework includes quality metrics such as entanglement fidelity, QBER, loss, and dark count rate; throughput and latency metrics like entanglement rate and waiting time; timing metrics such as coincidence window and jitter; and exogenous factors like temperature, humidity, and vibrations.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":51,"og:type":87,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":58,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":89,"canonical":51},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":25},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":92},[93,97,101,105,110,115,120,123,128,131,135],{"id":21,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":94,"show_sort_weight":95,"slug":96},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":47,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":112,"show_sort_weight":113,"slug":114},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":116,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":117,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":119},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":121,"slug":122},30,"research-report",{"id":124,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":125,"show_sort_weight":126,"slug":127},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":126,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":129,"show_sort_weight":126,"slug":130},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":132,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":133,"show_sort_weight":132,"slug":134},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":136,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":137,"show_sort_weight":106,"slug":138},19,"General","general"]