In the context of an ever-increasing density of data traffic and need to protect their integrity and confidentiality, Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) represents one of the most promising solutions to offer an additional level of security to existing communication infrastructures. By leveraging the laws of quantum mechanics, QKD offers unconditional security against both classical cyber threats and possible future interceptions by quantum computers.
Early this month, QTI, together with TIM Group’s companies Sparkle, the first international service provider in Italy and among the top global operators, and Telsy, center of excellence for communication security and cybersecurity, successfully completed a trial on a high-capacity link between two data centers in Athens, secured with QTI’s QKD systems (Quell-X).
The trial, realized in collaboration with Ribbon Communications, demonstrated the ability to deliver QKD secured connectivity services on an existing operator network, highlighting the replicability, efficiency and flexibility of the solution.
Key features
- The QKD link was implemented on the same fiber pair used for classical communication channels without the need of additional dedicated fiber optic infrastructure nor architectural changes on Sparkle’s metropolitan fiber network in Athens.
- The implementation achieved encryption over multiple individual clients on a high-speed link of 400 Gbps total throughput per single optical channel.
- The experiment demonstrated the smooth replicability of the use case.
“With Quantum Key Distribution we now have a tool for upgrading our telecom networks to achieve unconditional and future-proof security. This implementation is a valuable use case which is showcasing the potentiality of the technology to be adopted widely”
The quantum system deployed for the trial was developed as part of the EQUO project, the EuroQCI industry consortium focused on designing, developing, and testing advanced QKD solutions that are ready for integration into telecommunications networks. Sparkle, Telsy, and QTI, key participants in the EQUO project, drew on the expertise gained from previous EQUO activities to achieve this successful implementation.
