Colt Technology Services today announced the successful field trial of a quantum-secured optical transport system based on ADVA’s FSP 3000 platform and ConnectGuard layer 1 encryption technology.

The trial, which occurred on Colt’s metro network in Frankfurt, Germany, demonstrated how services could be protected against large-scale attacks using quantum key distribution (QKD) while in transit, according to the vendor.

“This trial of QKD-secure transport is proving how vital our technology will be even in the post-quantum era,” Uli Schlegel, director of product line management at ADVA, said in a statement. “Colt’s trial shows that it’s now possible to secure high-speed connectivity over deployed operational networks against tomorrow’s quantum computer attacks."

While many believe quantum computing will answer many our most elusive scientific quandaries, it also has the potential to upend cybersecurity conventions and render traditional encryption algorithms moot. ADVA claims QKD is the future of networking security as it offers “the ultimate defense against eavesdropping attacks” and uses the “laws of physics to create tamper-proof encryption keys.”

The Colt trial used QKD keys generated by Swiss quantum cryptography company ID Quantique on ADVA’s FSP 3000 series of optical line terminals. The keys provide the terminal with quantum random bit strings, which provide an extra source of entropy (read randomness) to the encryption algorithm, according to ADVA.

ADVA claims it can achieve deployable line speeds of 100 Gb/s when using quantum-safe encryption.

“With quantum computers on the horizon, it’s crucial to stay one step ahead of the hackers. This trial is a major step towards the next generation of cryptographic infrastructure and takes us closer to safeguarding our customers’ information from tomorrow’s threats,” Oktay Tekin, Colt's director of Central and Eastern Europe, said in a statement.

Quantum-safe encryption has become a hot topic in recent years as quantum computing threatens to negate previously cryptographically-sound algorithms. IBM has taken a particular interest in addressing these concerns with new cryptographic algorithms that promise to be more resistant to quantum computing-based attacks.

Late last year, IBM claimed to have unlocked the key to keeping data safe from quantum computing attacks, and began rolling out quantum-safe cryptography support to key management and application transactions on its public cloud.

While the threat is still probably five to 10 years away, Raj Nagaratnam, distinguished engineer and CTO for cloud security at IBM, argues that it’s important to start preparing for this inevitability today.

That’s because if an attacker steals sensitive data protected by transport layer security (TLS) protocols or public and private encryption keys, “it has the risk of being broken by quantum computers in the future,” he explained in an earlier interview with SDxCentral.

On a related note, Malaysian network operator Allo Technology today announced the deployment of Infinera’s GX-series disaggregated optical transport platform.

The deployment will help to address infrastructure challenges associated with tower fiberization, data center connectivity, and cross-border connectivity with neighboring countries, according to Allo.

Infinera’s GX-series appliances are designed to integrate with existed optical infrastructure in open optical networking environments. The platform will support line rates up to 600 Gb/s on Allo's network, with the option of upgrading to Infinera’s 800 Gb/s-capable coherent optics in the future.

Adoption of line rates beyond 400 Gb/s are expected to triple this year, according to a Dell’Oro Group report from December.

“We believe the adoption curve for 600 Gb/s-capable line cards entered an inflection point and that it is positioned for rapid growth in 2021,” Dell’Oro analyst Jimmy Yu said. “We believe 800 Gb/s-capable line cards will also increase [in 2021], considering the strong shipments so far with only one manufacturer.”

However, while shipments of 600 Gb/s and 800 Gb/s optics are expected to ramp up this year, Yu notes that most customers are likely to tune the optics to supply 400 Gb/s wavelengths to metro, regional, and long-haul networks.