(Finance) – The companies of the TIM Group Sparklethe leading international service operator in Italy and among the leading in the world, and Telsya center of excellence for communications security and cybersecurity, together with its subsidiary QTI Quantum Telecommunications Italy, leader in Italy in the supply of QKD, announce the successful completion of a Proof of Concept (PoC) on a high-capacity link between two data centers in Athens, secured with Quantum Key Distribution (QKD).
In the context of an increasing density of the traffic data and the need to protect itintegrity and the confidentialityQKD technology represents one of the most promising solutions to provide an additional level of security to existing communication infrastructures. By exploiting the laws of mechanics quantumQKD offers unconditional security against both classical cyber threats and possible future interceptions by quantum computers.
Focused on a secure video conference performed through the Antares platform Telsy on a high-capacity link between two Sparkle data centers in Athens, the PoC demonstrated the ability to provide secure connectivity services via QKD over an existing telecom network, highlighting the replicability, efficiency and flexibility of the solution. QKD connection It has in fact been implemented on the same pair of fibres used for classic communication channels, without the need for additional dedicated fibre optic infrastructures or architectural modifications to Sparkle’s metropolitan fibre network in Athens.
Finally, the use of the system of Apollo optical network of Ribbon Communicationsa global provider of real-time communications solutions, has enabled customer traffic to be encrypted and transported over a 400G link.
This PoC on Quantum Key Distribution follows two previous tests carried out by Sparkle on post-quantum cryptography – one on an international VPN between Italy And Germany and one on an Internet access service in Athens – confirming Sparkle’s pioneering role in this field and its strong commitment to improving the security and resilience of its infrastructure even before the advent of quantum computers. Sparkle’s Quantum-Safe Internet is scheduled for commercial launch later this year and will be progressively followed by other security services.
“With this PoC on Quantum Key Distribution we are taking another step forward in protecting our network against the potential threat of quantum decryption,” he said. Antonella BloodyMarketing and Product Management Manager for Networking, Cloud, Security and Identity Solutions at Sparkle. “The various experiments we have conducted, in collaboration with the most experienced companies in the sector and within European and international projects, strengthen our determination to continue on this path to offer our customers maximum protection”.
“The implementation highlighted the definitive move of QKD technology from the laboratory to the market, providing an efficient, cost-effective and easily implementable real-world use case,” he said. Pierangela Pitzoludirector of International Government Business Development at Telsy.
“With Quantum Key Distribution we now have a tool to upgrade our telecom networks and achieve unconditional and future-proof security. This implementation is a valuable use case that demonstrates the potential of the technology to be adopted at scale,” said Thomas Pinned eyesCEO of QTI.