  We pose the fundamental question of communication properties of primitives
irrespectively of their implementation. To illustrate the idea we introduce the
concept of entanglement-swapping boxes, i.e. we consider any quantum operations
which perform entanglement swapping, not necessarily via simple quantum
teleportation. We ask a question about the properties of such boxes., i.e. what
local operations and how much classical communication are needed to perform
them. We also ask if any box which performs entanglement swapping can be used
to establish classical communication. We show that each box needs at least two
bits of classical communication to perform it. It is also shown that each box
can be used for classical communication and, most importantly, that there exist
boxes which allow to communicate at most one bit. Surprisingly we find basic
irreversibility in the process of entanglement swapping with respect to its
communication properties.
