Scalable and Lightweight Distributed Local Routing for Quantum Network-Based Microgrids

—Quantum networks present a potent solution to secure microgrid communication in the quantum era. Efficient quantum network routing protocols play an important role in developing practical and resilient quantum network-based microgrids. In this paper, we make the following contributions: 1) establish lightweight-yet-holistic routing tables for scalable and low-latency quantum routing in microgrids; 2) devise efficient distributed local routing protocols for quantum network-enabled microgrids; and 3) integrate the devised protocols in a realtime QNetGrid testbed and evaluate their performance under different scenarios. Experiments validate the efficacy of the devised methods and provide insights for developing efficient quantum network routing for cyber-resilient microgrids.