Quantum coordinated multi-point communication based on entanglement swapping

In a quantum network, adjacent nodes can communicate with each other point to point by using pre-shared Einsten---Podolsky---Rosen (EPR) pairs, and furthermore remote nodes can establish entanglement channels by using quantum routing among intermediate nodes. However, with the rapid development of quantum networks, the demand of various message transmission among nodes inevitably emerges. In order to realize this goal and extend quantum networks, we propose a quantum coordinated multi-point communication scheme based on entanglement swapping. The scheme takes full advantage of EPR pairs between adjacent nodes and performs multi-party entanglement swapping to transmit messages. Considering various demands of communication, all nodes work cooperatively to realize different message transmission modes, including one to many, many to one and one to some. Scheme analysis shows that the proposed scheme can flexibly organize a coordinated group and efficiently use EPR resources, while it meets basic security requirement under the condition of coordinated communication.