- Cisco is unveiling a quantum network controller, building on earlier work on hardware and applications
- The controller is meant to hide the complexity of distributing entanglement across quantum networks and expose simpler APIs for applications
- Cisco is looking for more design partners and expects real operational experience over roughly the next two years
Cisco has spent years assembling the pieces of a quantum networking stack — hardware, software and applications. Now, it says it has built the missing control layer needed to make those networks scale.
Quantum networks today are still very much niche territory, and thus many are still built and tuned by hand, Head of Cisco Research Ramana Kompella told Fierce Network. But scaling quantum technology means keeping up with configuration changes at machine speed.
“You’re connecting a fiber here, a fiber there, you’re doing some tinkering of setting up the state, setting up the configuration, all that stuff very manually,” Kompella said. “The problem is you can’t scale or scalably operate a quantum network that way — especially if applications are coming in and saying… ‘I want to leverage the quantum network to exchange X number of entanglements between Alice and Bob.’ Just setting it up manually is just not going to scale.”
That’s where Cisco’s new Quantum Network Controller comes in. The controller is basically an abstraction layer bridging quantum hardware and quantum applications.
Instead of forcing an application to deal with the messy mechanics of quantum networks – managing entanglement sources, configuring paths through the network, monitoring photon delivery and maintaining fidelity rates – Cisco’s controller exposes a simplified API. An application can request a certain number of entanglements at a specified fidelity and time, while the controller handles admission, monitoring, feedback loops and any repairs needed to keep the task on track.
This simplicity isn’t just about making quantum networks less bespoke. It’s about opening the door to an ecosystem of third-party vendors, Kompella said.
"I believe, just like with classical [networks] that there will be an ecosystem of several different hardware devices made by several different vendors,” he said. “So, you need an abstraction to sort of abstract these devices so that you can mix and match and grow the ecosystem, which is where the controller also helps.”
Why quantum matters for operators now
Cisco’s Quantum Network Controller joins the Quantum Switch it launched earlier this year, the Quantum Compiler it debuted last year and the protcols it has been working on. Kompella likened the full-stack approach to what the company has done with its existing classical networking portfolio, where it has built its own silicon, hardware and software to speed development cycles. And at this point, he said, it still makes more sense to build than buy since it’s “not like there’s a ton of players that are actively developing” in this particular market.
But why even bother with quantum at all when it’s still so niche?
Kompella said part of the reason Cisco has decided to invest early is because even classical applications can take advantage of quantum networks.
“Classical applications, for the most part, always assumed that there's a classical network, and they lived with its limitations,” he explained. “What happened is now that we are talking about quantum networks, the question to ask is, ‘can quantum networks actually offer any kind of advantage?’”
The answer to that question, at least for a subset of use cases, is yes. Kompella pointed to high frequency trading applications in the financial services sector and security use cases like eavesdrop detection and secure position verification as examples.
“Interestingly enough all of our tech works with standard telecom fiber,” he said. “It's just the way you represent information and the way these photons are actually getting generated which is different.”
Where things are headed
It’s important to note that the Quantum Network Controller launch is more of an intimate invitation to interested parties than it is a typical Cisco product launch. This isn’t something a customer can just hop on the Cisco website and order. The market just hasn’t reached that kind of scale or maturity yet, Kompella said.
Rather than supporting mass production, what Cisco is really looking for with this launch is to woo a number of partners who are interested deploying its tech in real-world operational environments.
There’s a lot to learn by deploying on real fiber rather than on a spool in a lab, Kompella said. Things like “what type of compensation we need to look at; what type of loss rates are we looking at; what type of vibrations we need to worry about; what type of like environmental conditions we need…it's the last bit of engineering that is really truly required.”
Kompella said the company is already working with select partners and recently tested entanglement swapping with Qunnect. Over the next two years, he said, Cisco hopes to see “real operational experience” with much of the full stack it has been describing.
“Once we think we have reached that level of maturity, we want to open it up for the broader public,” he concluded.
Read more about quantum networks on Fierce Network:
Incoming EPB CEO talks about the broadband company’s work with quantum
Quantum telecom: What’s new from Comcast, Deutsche Telekom and Qunnect