SimulaQron Documentation

Welcome to the Quantum Internet simulator SimulaQron!

SimulaQron is a distributed simulation of the end nodes in a future quantum internet with the specific goal to explore application development. Each node in the simulated network provides the illusion of having a local quantum processor to potential applications, while the nodes connect classically to allow the exchange of simulated qubits and the creation of simulated entanglement.

Key features

  • Distributed quantum internet simulation — install a local simulation program on each computer, or run all nodes on a single machine

  • Three simulation backends — stabilizer formalism (efficient), QuTip (default, mixed state), and ProjectQ (pure state)

  • Two programming interfaces — the NetQASM SDK (recommended) and a native Twisted mode for low-level access

  • Configurable network topologies — complete, ring, path, random tree, or custom topologies

  • Classical communication — built-in client/server framework for exchanging classical messages between nodes

Quick start

  1. Install dependencies:

    sudo add-apt-repository -y "ppa:deadsnakes/ppa"
sudo apt-get install python3.12-full python3.12-dev
sudo apt-get install build-essential cmake linux-headers-generic

  2. Create a python virtual environment:

    python3.12 -m venv simulaqron-venv

  3. Activate the virtual environment:

    source simulaqron-venv/bin/activate

  4. Install SimulaQron:

    pip install simulaqron

  5. Configure SimulaQron — use the simulaqron command line tool to create a default simulaqron_settings.json file:

    simulaqron set default

  6. Configure your network — use the simulaqron command line tool to create a default simulaqron_network.json file, which contains 5 nodes:

    simulaqron nodes default

  7. Start the simulaqron backend:

    simulaqron start

  8. Write your first program using the NetQASM SDK. Save this code as program.py:

    from netqasm.runtime.settings import set_simulator
set_simulator("simulaqron")
from netqasm.sdk.external import NetQASMConnection
from netqasm.sdk import Qubit

conn = NetQASMConnection("Alice")
q = Qubit(conn)
q.H()
m = q.measure()
conn.flush()                             # execute queued operations
print(f"Qubit measurement: {int(m)}")    # read measurement result
conn.close()

  9. Execute your program:

    python program.py

  10. Check the output. Output should be Qubit measurement: 0/1. Measurement should randomly be 0 or 1.

  11. Stop simulaqron backend. Before running another application, stop the current running backend:

    pip install simulaqron

  12. Run other more complex examples — see Examples for complete working programs.

Where to go next

We also have a paper describing the design of SimulaQron, freely available on arxiv.

Contents:

Indices and tables

  • Index

  • Module Index

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