Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) Networking was part of a recent proof-of-concept (PoC) that demonstrated the deployment of quantum-safe networking at scale and without interfering with existing infrastructure, furthering a growing push around quantum networking initiatives.

The PoC included the newly Juniper Networks-enhanced HPE Networking division, CUbIQ Technologies, Coherent, and Liberty Global.

CUbIQ delivered its continuous variable quantum key distribution (CV-QKD) transceiver module and quantum security architecture that was integrated into a QSFP-28 pluggable module. That module was then integrated into HPE Networking’s routing platform to support quantum-safe MACsec encryption.

Gert Grammel, a quantum security lead at Juniper Networks and now HPE Networking, noted in a blog post that this integration enabled “quantum-safe encryption without the need for bulky 19-inch, rack-mounted systems or complex retrofits.”

Coherent supplied its 400 Gb/s ZR QSFP-DD DCO optical transceivers for the high capacity QDK-encrypted line transmission to support quantum key exchange over existing fiber networks. Liberty Global provided acted as the network service provider, offering “real-world deployment scenarios and strategic insight into telecom applications.”

Grammel explained that this PoC was targeted at showing how a quantum-focused cybersecurity posture can be inserted into a networking architecture with minimal disruptions.

A key challenge in QKD networks is routing traffic and assigning wavelengths to communication channels. Attackers can exploit this by using high-power jamming signals on a single link to disrupt multiple communication paths across the network.

“Quantum computers pose a real threat to classical encryption methods,” Grammel wrote. “As these machines become more powerful, they could eventually break widely used cryptographic protocols like RSA and ECC. In the short-term, an increasing issue is eavesdropping during key exchange. For these reasons, quantum-safe solutions such as QKD are increasingly essential – not just for governments and financial institutions, but for any organization that values data integrity and privacy.

Quantum networking security and integration

The work highlights a surge in quantum-focused integration and cybersecurity efforts for network architecture.

Ciena recently collaborated with Spain-based research network REDIMadrid on an end-to-end quantum secure data transport project that integrated a quantum channel with existing dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) signals over the same fiber. The work was able to carry both classical and quantum QKD signals over one fiber instead of two.

That followed published work from a group of engineers from Canada and Italy that developed an algorithm to shore up QKD networks, preventing them from being disrupted by threat actors.

On the integration side, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) engineers came up with a method to integrate quantum links into classical network infrastructure. A similar project was completed by researchers at the University of British Columbia earlier this summer, who created a “universal translator” for quantum computers, allowing disparate systems to communicate over a network with virtually no noise.