  We investigate the detection and characterization of entanglement based on
the quantum network introduced in [Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 110501 (2004)] for
different experimental scenarios. We first give a detailed discussion of the
ideal scheme where no errors are present and full spatial resolution is
available. Then we analyze the implementation of the network in an optical
lattice. We find that even without any spatial resolution entanglement can be
detected and characterized in various kinds of states including cluster states
and macroscopic superposition states. We also study the effects of detection
errors and imperfect dynamics on the detection network. For our scheme to be
practical these errors have to be on the order of one over the number of
investigated lattice sites. Finally, we consider the case of limited spatial
resolution and conclude that significant improvement in entanglement detection
and characterization compared to having no spatial resolution is only possible
if single lattice sites can be resolved.
