In the PQC craze, don't ignore quantum key distribution

The quantum technology world has been talking about post-quantum cryptography (PQC) in recent months, but industry experts speaking at the recent IQT Quantum Enterprise event in San Diego said that quantum key distribution (QKD) technology cannot be ignored either.

In fact, while the quantum field has been waiting for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to announce the PQC standard, the QKD project is still moving fast.

Speaking in San Diego, Toshiba CEO Taro Shimada talked about his company's role in a large QKD proof-of-concept (PoC) project with banking giant JPMorgan, as well as with telecom network operators such as BT in the UK and KT in South Korea, Chicago Quantum Exchange's QKD network promotion. Among them, the project in cooperation with KT involves the QKD centers in the South Korean cities of Seoul and Daejeon, which will become a testbed for QKD as a service (QKDaaS) and will be put into use this summer.

Taro Shimada

Taro Shimada said: "Over the past few decades, billions of dollars have been spent worldwide on developing and conducting QKD technology systems and network trials. Toshiba itself has spent tens of millions of R&D on this technology so far. cost."

Toshiba's CEO conducts virtual meeting with JPMorgan Chase & Co. Managing Director, Distinguished Engineer, Head of Research and Engineering, Head of Quantum Technologies Marco Pistoia: Covering JP Morgan and Toshiba's QKD work (which also includes network technology provider Ciena) . "We're talking about the first mission network capable of supporting mission-critical applications in the metro area," Pistoia said.

Marco Pistoia

Pistoia described six tests conducted by JPMorgan and Toshiba at the JPMorgan lab in Columbus, Ohio. "The first four tests were to test whether the QKD quality was sufficient to sustain high data traffic. We tested the interoperability between Toshiba's antennas and network infrastructure. The distance test reached 100 kilometers, which is sufficient for metro. "

Pistoia then added: "We were able to multiplex the key exchange in a single Fibre Channel and actually be able to exchange 258 keys in a secure data channel of 800 Gbps, along with other data, for a total of 2.4 Tbps of capacity. "These are very important results because everything happens on the same fiber: we show that it is not necessary to create a separate fiber channel just to transmit the key, so there is no additional cost to use quantum key distribution."

The group also conducted eavesdropper tests and demonstrated the security of blockchain applications requiring secrecy in the sixth test. Regarding the sixth test, he said: "This is actually working with JPMorgan's payments application, so we were able to show that it ensures confidentiality for real-world applications. In the future, we also want to work around the verification of digital signatures. ."

ID Quantique is another group involved in testing QKD; South Korea's SK Telecom is also building a 30-node QKD network; the European Commission's EuroQCI project has ambitious goals; meanwhile, Qubitekk has partnered with fiber network provider EPB and the U.S. Air Force Do a QKD demo.

As QKD matures and progresses beyond small-scale trials and PoCs, and companies are able to use repeaters to increase transmission distances, it begins to change the perception that it is competitive with PQC and is somehow quantum safe inferior alternative.

Gregoire Ribordy

Gregoire Ribordy, founder and CEO of ID Quantique, said, "Our view is that the two technologies are actually complementary: QKD can be used in the information backbone, and PQC can be used at the network edge and in end devices."

John Prisco

John Prisco, president and CEO of Safe Quantum, agrees, "I'm looking at more QKD use cases, including securing data in motion to the cloud and fintech verticals. It's more of a difference between PQC and QkD. Collaboration. I think both are of course very important, in some applications, the two work very well together; in other applications, one technology has an advantage over the other. But in general, the two Technology will be critical in the future.”

In addition to the ongoing PoCs and trials, Prisco believes that other developments that will contribute to the advancement of QKD are the miniaturization of the technology and its integration at the chip level. "This will drive costs down," he said. "It will definitely help QKD expand into more markets. I think the golden age of QKD is right in front of us."

Reference link:

https://www.insidequantumtechnology.com/news-archive/iqt-san-diego-recap-dont-sleep-on-qkd-amid-pqc-buzz/