Quantum Networking in SeQUeNCe: Customizable, Scalable, Easy Debugging

SeQUeNCe: Simulator of QUantum Network Communication

SeQUeNCe is an open source, discrete-event simulator for quantum networks. As described in our paper, the simulator includes 5 modules on top of a simulation kernel:

• Hardware
• Entanglement Management
• Resource Management
• Network Management
• Application

These modules can be edited by users to define additional functionality and test protocol schemes, or may be used as-is to test network parameters and topologies.

Installation

For Users

SeQUeNCe requires Python 3.12 or later. You can install SeQUeNCe using pip:

pip install sequence

Development Environment Setup

If you wish to modify the source code, use an editable installation with either pip or uv:

Editable installations let Python use your local source tree directly, so changes you make to the SeQUeNCe code are available without reinstalling the package after each edit. The pip option is a lightweight way to install the local package into an environment you already manage, while uv can create and synchronize a reproducible virtual environment from the project's dependency files.

(1) Using pip

git clone https://github.com/sequence-toolbox/SeQUeNCe.git
cd sequence
make install_editable

In the Makefile, install_editable will run the following:

pip install --editable . --config-settings editable_mode=strict

The --config-settings editable_mode=strict setting makes the editable install behaves more like a real packaged install.

(2) Using uv

Install uv (Astral Instructions)

# macOS/Linux
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

# Windows
powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex"

Clone the repository and create the virtual environment

Here we clone the repository and let uv configure the development environment with the target python version.

git clone https://github.com/sequence-toolbox/SeQUeNCe.git
cd sequence
uv sync

Activate the virtual environment

Now that the virtual environment is created with all dependencies installed, you can activate it using the following command.

source .venv/bin/activate # macOS/Linux
source .venv\Scripts\activate # Windows

Running the test suite

SeQUeNCe includes a comprehensive test suite, this can be ran with the following command

uv run pytest tests

Citation

Please cite us, thank you!

@article{sequence,
author = {Xiaoliang Wu and Alexander Kolar and Joaquin Chung and Dong Jin and Tian Zhong and Rajkumar Kettimuthu and Martin Suchara},
title = {SeQUeNCe: a customizable discrete-event simulator of quantum networks},
journal = {Quantum Science and Technology},
volume = {6},
year = {2021},
month = {sep},
doi = {10.1088/2058-9565/ac22f6},
url = {https://dx.doi.org/10.1088/2058-9565/ac22f6},
publisher = {IOP Publishing},
}

Running the GUI

Once SeQUeNCe has been installed as described above, run the gui.py script found in the root of the project directory

python gui.py

Usage Examples

Many examples of SeQUeNCe in action can be found in the example folder. The example includes jupyter notebook demos, and code used in published papers.

Additional Tools

Network Visualization

The example directory contains an example .json file starlight.json to specify a network topology, and the utils directory contains the script draw_topo.py to visualize json files. To use this script, the Graphviz library must be installed. Installation information can be found on the Graphviz website.

To view a network, run the script and specify the relative location of your .json file:

python utils/draw_topo.py example/starlight.json

This script also supports a flag -m to visualize BSM nodes created by default on quantum links between routers.

Contact

If you have questions, please contact Caitao Zhan at czhan@anl.gov.

Here is the updated table with the Code column populated:

Papers that Used and/or Extended SeQUeNCe

Year	Authors	Title	Venue	Code
2026	S. Pantage et al.	Realistic Simulation of Quantum Repeater with Encoding and Classical Error Correction	arXiv preprint	GitHub
2026	A. Pirker et al.	Centralizing Task-based Approach to Quantum Network Control	arXiv preprint	GitHub
2026	A. Amlou et al.	Physics-Informed Discrete-Event Simulation of Polarization-Encoded Quantum Networks	arXiv preprint
2026	H. Miller et al.	Simulation of a Heterogeneous Quantum Network	IEEE QCNC	GitHub
2026	A. Zang et al.	Quantum Advantage in Distributed Sensing with Noisy Quantum Networks	Physical Review Research
2025	C. Zhan et al.	Design and Simulation of the Adaptive Continuous Entanglement Generation Protocol	IEEE QCNC	GitHub
2025	F. Mazza et al.	Simulation of Entanglement-Enabled Connectivity in QLANs using SeQUeNCe	IEEE ICC
2025	L. d'Avossa et al.	Simulation of Quantum Transduction Strategies for Quantum Networks	IEEE QCE
2025	V. S. Mai et al.	Towards Optimal Orders for Entanglement Swapping in Path Graphs: A Greedy Approach	IEEE QCE
2024	C. Howe et al.	Towards Scalable Quantum Repeater Networks	arXiv preprint
2024	X. Wu et al.	Parallel Simulation of Quantum Networks with Distributed Quantum State Management	ACM TOMACS
2023	R. Zhou et al.	A Simulator of Atom-Atom Entanglement with Atomic Ensembles and Quantum Optics	IEEE QCE
2023	M.G. Davis et al.	Towards Distributed Quantum Computing by Qubit and Gate Graph Partitioning Techniques	IEEE QCE
2022	A. Zang et al.	Simulation of Entanglement Generation between Absorptive Quantum Memories	IEEE QCE
2022	V. Semenenko et al.	Entanglement generation in a quantum network with finite quantum memory lifetime	AVS Quantum Science
2021	X. Wu et al.	SeQUeNCe: A Customizable Discrete-Event Simulator of Quantum Networks	IOP Quantum Science and Technology
2019	X. Wu et al.	Simulations of Photonic Quantum Networks for Performance Analysis and Experiment Design	IEEE/ACM PHOTONICS

Please do a Pull Request to add your paper here!