On May 18th, the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) announced the establishment of the Washington Metropolitan Quantum Network Research Consortium (DC-QNet), designed to “advance quantum network capabilities and leadership” and “to create, demonstrate and operate a quantum network as a regional testbed.”
The NRL will be collaborating with the following five government agencies to “stand up” the DC-QNet:
- U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Army Research Laboratory
- U.S. Naval Observatory
- National Institute of Standards and Technology
- National Security Agency/Central Security Services Directorate of Research
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
There are also two organizations outside the D.C. area affiliated with DC-QNet):
DC-QNet is launched in the shadow of the March announcement that the NATO cybersecurity center finished tests of a quantum-proof network and in response to the May White House National Security Memorandum on Promoting United States Leadership in Quantum Computing While Mitigating Risks to Vulnerable Cryptographic Systems and, primarily (as reported by Next.gov) on the recommendations of the “President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, or PCAST (reconstituted by executive order in October 2019) …and the Subcommittee on the “American Action Plan for Global Leadership in Industries of the Future”:
“…according to Subcommittee Chair Dario Gil, director of IBM Research…the subcommittee offered a set of recommendations for the federal government…’For instance, creating a national network of quantum computing user facilities. This would jumpstart quantum algorithm and application development and quantum computer science; make a critical scientific and computational resource available to scientists at U.S. national laboratories and universities, and serve as a market-making catalyst for accelerated growth in the U.S. industry producing quantum hardware and software.’
The framework for these facilities would be based on the High-Performance Computing, or HPC, user facilities established at the national labs, which offer researchers access to supercomputers.
‘These supported missions critical to our national security, advanced science and industry using novel approaches to computational modeling and simulation,’ Gil said. ‘The benefits have been deep and broad-based.’
In the same vein, the subcommittee suggested the government invest in a secure quantum network—a quantum internet—through which this research could grow.
‘Akin to the creation of ARPAnet in decades past—ultimately leading to the internet we have today—we should accelerate efforts to advance the science and infrastructure required to create a national quantum communications network, the foundation of a future quantum internet,’ Gil said.
That network would provide a common infrastructure for researchers across the country to collaborate.” (1)
About the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory
NRL is a scientific and engineering command dedicated to research that drives innovative advances for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps from the seafloor to space and in the information domain. NRL is located in Washington, D.C. with major field sites in Stennis Space Center, Mississippi; Key West, Florida; Monterey, California, and employs approximately 3,000 civilian scientists, engineers and support personnel.
What Next? Exponential Innovation and Quantum Security
“Quantum networks will be essential to modern secure communications and to computing enhancements in the 21st Century.” – Gerald Borsuk, Ph.D., DC-QNet Executive Director
The DC-QNet will act as a trusted quantum network testbed for the USG and the U.S. DoD, assisting official U.S. government timekeepers with network synchronization and the metrology required to operate a quantum network.
Quantum networks are an emerging research area with the potential to:
- Distribute and share quantum information securely among quantum computers, clusters of quantum sensors, and related devices at regional and national distances; and
- Distribute ultra-precise time signals.
This distributed quantum network topology is an innovative “trusted testbed” systems architecture that will enable the development of disruptive quantum computing-based products, services, and platforms at exponential speed and scale.
DC-QNet researchers will also lead projects on “quantum behaviors and capabilities such as transduction, or the process of converting qubits from one form into another. To fully harness these capabilities for quantum networking will require state-of-the-art measurement science or metrology.” Other research efforts will include:
- Development of high fidelity quantum memory nodes, single-photon devices, network metrology, qubit platforms, transduction and frequency conversion, synchronization, and continued research and development into enabling science and technology
- Developing the network infrastructure to connect the six metropolitan agencies
- Research and development into the transfer of quantum entanglement between nodes
- Emulation, modeling, and simulation of the network
- Research and development into the classical management and control, routing, monitoring, and metrology and associated software of the quantum network. (1)
It is to be determined how the DC-QNet will intertwine with and formally collaborate with the NSM10: The National Quantum Initiative (NQI) and the NQI Advisory Committee.
Overall, the design of the DC-QNet network incorporates the design characteristics of an Exponential Organization (ExO), which is, like some of the OODA Loop “Quantum List” companies, strategically structured for exponential speed and scale.
OODA CTO Bob Gourley’s recent The Quantum List: Companies leveraging quantum effects for real world functionality and security is organized into four sections: Quantum Computing, Quantum Security, Quantum Communications, and Quantum Sensing. The Quantum Security section has the most market activity in the private sector related to the nascent quantum network research frontier:
QuSecure has made claims of being the first to provide a full and complete offering in quantum security. But they provide few details on their website and many others are in this space also providing full offerings. QuSecure is well funded and seems to have many proofs of concepts underway so is one to watch.
Quantum Xchange gives commercial enterprises and government agencies a solution for secure communications based on quantum effects. Its complete key management system and supports both post-quantum crypto (PQC) and Quantum Key Distribution (QKD). The operator of the first quantum fiber network in the U.S.
QuintessenceLabs has developed a suite of data security technology, products, and solutions to secure digital information based on quantum effects. One of the oldest and most recognized in this space.
Crypto Quantique provides local network-based cyber-security solutions for its clients based on quantum effects.
ID Quantique provides high-performance multi-protocol network encryption based on both conventional and quantum technologies (Quantum Key Distribution QKD).
QWERX Leverages an Ephemeral key infrastructure to provide a solution that is not just Quantum Resistant, but Quantum Proof, with a technology that is ready now.
SandboxAQ is an enterprise SaaS company that provides AI and quantum computing solutions. SandboxAQ’s solutions include post-RSA cybersecurity modules that migrate enterprises to higher levels of security. SandboxAQ modules enable post-quantum cryptography in line with emerging standards in this field. The firm is building a portfolio of other solutions that include quantum sensing for medical uses.
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