Q-OSI Meets QTCP: A Layered Architecture and Transport Protocol for Scalable Quantum Internetworking

Mike Kamber
Jun 29
3 min read

Updated: Jul 15

A Technical White Paper

Author: Michael Kamber, Quantum Dynamics LLC, research@quantum-dynamics.org

Date: June 2025

A New Blueprint for Building the Quantum Internet

Conversations about a “quantum internet” usually leap straight to the science‑fiction end of the spectrum, teleporting data, unbreakable encryption, and exotic networks of entangled particles. Yet behind the hype sits an inconvenient reality:  today’s quantum links are basically one‑off science projects. They provide isolated quantum‑key–distribution (QKD) channels or lab‑scale experiments, but they do not interoperate, route traffic, or scale the way the classical Internet does.

That gap is exactly what our brand‑new white paper, “Q‑OSI Meets QTCP: A Layered Architecture and Transport Protocol for Scalable Quantum Internetworking,” tackles head‑on. The complete PDF is now available for free download, link above. In this post I want to give you the highlights and explain why we believe Q‑OSI + QTCP can become the TCP/IP of quantum networking.

Why We Need a Clean‑Sheet Stack

The classical ISO/OSI model separates networking into seven layers, physical, data‑link, network, transport, and so on, so that engineers can innovate in one layer without breaking another. Quantum networking has no such lingua franca:

Device‑specific hacks: each experiment bakes protocol logic into the hardware it runs on.
No end‑to‑end reliability: errors accumulate exponentially as entangled qubits hop from node to node.
Traffic storms: early demos simply “fire and forget,” flooding links until qubits decohere.

Without a clean, open standard, it will be impossible to combine photonic repeaters in Boston with NV‑centre memories in Delft and trapped‑ion nodes in Sydney into the same global backbone.

Introducing Q‑OSI—Seven Familiar Layers, Quantum‑Ready

Our white paper proposes Quantum OSI (Q‑OSI), a hardware‑agnostic reference model that directly mirrors the classical stack:

Layer	Classical Analogue	Quantum Role
7 Application	HTTP/SSH	Blind QC, distributed sensing
6 Presentation	TLS	Basis negotiation, syndrome compression
5 Session	SSL/TCP session	Entanglement keep‑alive & resume
4 Transport	TCP/UDP	QTCP – reliable ebit delivery
3 Network	IP	Path selection & routing
2 Data‑Link	Ethernet	Heralded Bell‑pair creation
1 Physical	Fibre / free‑space	Photon generation & detection

Most importantly, the model is open: hardware vendors, network operators, and application developers can work to a shared spec instead of a lab notebook.

QTCP—A Congestion‑Controlled, Error‑Managed Transport Layer

Building on Q‑OSI, we specify Quantum Transmission Control Protocol (QTCP), a direct analogue of classical TCP, but designed for the quirks of qubits:

Surface‑code trailers inside every packet carry error‑syndrome data so downstream repeaters can correct in‑flight noise.
AIMD congestion control is tuned to decoherence windows rather than router queues, cutting qubit‑loss probability by 37 % in our tests.
Three‑way handshake negotiates not just sequence numbers, but also target fidelity and quantum‑memory lifetime.

What the Numbers Say

We built a full Python/QuTiP‑based simulator (open‑sourced under Apache 2.0) and swept 10,000 Monte‑Carlo runs across mesh networks up to 128 nodes:

End‑to‑End Fidelity – QTCP holds ≥ 0.92 at eight hops, while “fire‑and‑forget” links collapse below 0.75.
Throughput – Up to 8.8 ebits s⁻¹ per hop, four times faster than plain repeat‑until‑success strategies.
Scalability – Near‑linear growth (slope ≈ 0.98) up to 128 nodes with today’s hardware assumptions (NV coherence ≈ 50 ms).

These figures line up with ETSI TS 104 015 quantum‑safe requirements and track the ongoing IEEE P1913 draft on software‑defined quantum communication, meaning the stack isn’t just theoretical; it is built to slot into real standards.

Who Should Read the Full Paper?

Quantum‑hardware engineers – understand the exact service primitives upper layers will expect from your devices.
Network architects & telcos – see how routing and congestion control translate into the quantum era.
Academics & standards bodies – a ready‑to‑fork reference implementation plus ASN.1 header schemas to accelerate RFC‑grade drafts.
Investors & policymakers – quantitative evidence that a scalable quantum backbone is technically and economically feasible.

What’s Next?

IETF Internet‑Draft submission to the Quantum‑Internet Research Group (QIRG) – targeting Q4 2025.
Interop test‑bed on the DOE‑funded Chicago quantum network – early 2026.
Open conformance suite (Rust + Python) so vendors can self‑certify against the spec.
Standard ratification in ETSI ISG‑QKD Release 3 by 2027.

If you’d like to pilot Q‑OSI/QTCP on your hardware, please reach out, we’re assembling an industry working group right now.

Stay in Touch

Email: research@quantum-dynamics.org
LinkedIn: Quantum Dynamics LLC

Feel free to share feedback, open issues, or pull requests. The quantum internet will only happen if the entire community, physicists, network engineers, chip designers, software developers, builds it together.

Let’s make entanglement the new Ethernet.