Establishing end-to-end quantum connections requires quantified link characteristics, and operations need to coordinate decision-making between nodes across a network. We introduce the RuleSet-based communication protocol for supporting quantum operations over distant nodes to minimize classical packet transmissions for guaranteeing synchronicity. RuleSets are distributed to nodes along a path at connection set up time, and hold lists of operations that need to be performed in real time. We simulate the RuleSet-based quantum link bootstrapping protocol, which consists of recurrent purifications and link-level tomography, to quantify the quantum link fidelity and its throughput. Our Markov-Chain Monte-Carlo simulation includes various error sources, such as the memory error, gate error and channel error, modeled on currently available hardware. We found that when two quantum nodes, each with 100 memory qubits capable of emitting photons ideally to the optical fiber, are physically connected with a 10km MeetInTheMiddle link, the Recurrent Single selection -Single error purification (RSs-Sp) protocol is capable of bringing up the fidelity from an average input Fr = 0.675 to around Fr = 0.865 with a generation rate of 1106 Bell pairs per second, as determined by simulated tomography. The system gets noisier with longer channels, in which case errors may develop faster than the purification gain. In such a situation, a stronger purification method, such as the double selection-based purification, shows an advantage for improving the fidelity. The knowledge acquired from bootstrapping can later be distributed to nodes within the same network, and used for other purposes such as route selection.The Quantum Internet brings us new capabilities that fundamentally cannot be reproduced by classical technologies. Some of the well-known examples include quantum key distribution (QKD) to securely share strings of random, secret classical bits suitable for encrypting messages [6-9], accurately synchronizing clocks over a network [10,11], distributed computing such as the secure delegate quantum computing service named quantum blind computing [12,13], and other cases involving more than one quantum computer working on difficult problems that cannot be solved by classical supercomputers.Quantum repeaters, introduced by Briegel et al. in 1998 [14], are the core idea of a robust quantum network. A quantum repeater node has four main roles. First, a repeater needs to be able to physically create, distribute and store entangled resources between neighbors [15,16]. The second role is to manage errors on qubits. Errors can be corrected via quantum error correction [17,18], or detected and discarded from the system via quantum purification [19]. Third, the node connects stored resources to increase the span of entangled states over a multi-hop route [20][21][22], typically via entanglement swapping [23]. Lastly, each node needs to participate in management of the network. Quantum systems are inherently noisy. Knill and Laflamme discusse...