The quantum computing era and its upsides and downsides might still be years away, but the threat to communications network security set to be posed by cyber criminals armed with quantum computers is already being addressed by multiple telcos and vendors, with Ciena and Toshiba the latest to team up and show off their quantum-safe networking capabilities.
Quantum-safe networking – also known as quantum-secure networking, quantum-resistant networking and post-quantum networking – is still in its relative infancy but is already being used in some ground-breaking rollouts, such as the commercial deployment in the UK by BT in partnership with Toshiba, which the UK operator boasted was a “world first” – see BT boasts quantum security breakthrough with Toshiba, EY.
Now Toshiba has teamed up with optical networking giant Ciena to show off the capabilities of a quantum-secure link at the OFC trade show in San Diego, California, where the two companies have connected their respective booths using quantum key distribution (QKD) trusted node and multiplexing technology that can secure network traffic running over fibres deployed for the trade show’s OFCnet infrastructure.
