A Dual-Uplink Dual-Satellite Architecture for Entanglement Distribution

arXiv:2610.26034v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Satellite-based quantum links are a promising enabler of long-distance entanglement distribution, overcoming the exponential losses of optical fibers. In uplink architectures, entangled photons are generated at ground stations and transmitted to orbiting satellites, reducing space-segment complexity but introducing significant atmospheric and geometric losses. Single-satellite dual-uplink configurations are additionally limited by the requirement of simultaneous visibility between both ground stations and the satellite. In this work, we investigate a dual-uplink dual-satellite network architecture and compare its performance with the single-satellite scheme under identical physical assumptions. The proposed topology introduces an inter-satellite link (ISL) that decouples the ground-station separation from the atmospheric uplink geometry. A realistic channel model is employed, incorporating geometric attenuation, atmospheric turbulence, background noise, and Bell-state measurement efficiency. The overall success probability and practical fidelity are evaluated as functions of satellite altitude and ground-station separation. Our results show that while the single-satellite configuration is suitable for regional-scale networks, it becomes infeasible for large separations due to geometric constraints. The proposed dual-satellite architecture mitigates this limitation and significantly extends the achievable communication distance, representing a key step toward scalable quantum internet infrastructures.