  Scaling the number of entangled nodes in a quantum network is a challenge
with significant implications for quantum computing, clock synchronisation,
secure communications, and quantum sensing. In a quantum network, photons
interact with matter qubits at different nodes, flexibly enabling the creation
of remote entanglement between them. Multipartite entanglement among multiple
nodes will be crucial for many proposed quantum network applications, including
quantum computational tasks and quantum metrology. To date, experimental
efforts have primarily focused on generating bipartite entanglement between
nodes, which is widely regarded as the fundamental quantum resource for quantum
networks. However, relying exclusively on bipartite entanglement to form more
complex multipartite entanglement introduces several challenges. These include
the need for ancillary qubits, extensive local entangling operations which
increases the preparation latency, and increasingly stringent requirements on
coherence times as the number of nodes grows. Here, we analyse various schemes
that achieve multipartite entanglement between nodes in a single step,
bypassing the need for multiple rounds of bipartite entanglement. We
demonstrate that different schemes can produce distinct multipartite entangled
states, with varying fidelity and generation rates. Additionally, we discuss
the applicability of these schemes across different experimental platforms,
highlighting their primary advantages and disadvantages.
