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CIviQ is a 3-year project aiming to integrate Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) into modern telecom networks to provide long-term reliable data privacy. The project consists of 21 partners, involving telecommunication companies and developers of quantum key distribution systems and theory.
CiviQ was chosen as part of the initial ramp-up phase of the European Union's Quantum Flagship initiative. The project launched in October 2018 with €9,974,006.25 in funding.
The goal of the CiViQ project is the integration of quantum communication technologies, in particular, Continuous-Variable QKD (CV-QKD) into emerging optical telecommunication networks. CV-QKD is a protocol in which electric field amplitudes are directly measured using coherent detection, widely used in coherent optical telecommunication.
Work targets advancing both the QKD technology and the emerging “software network” approach to lay the foundations of future seamless integration of both. The project's goals are:
- Design architectures and implement protocol extensions of flexible “software-based” networks for midterm country-wide QKD reach.
- Develop CV-QKD systems and components, derive a standardized set of interfaces, also allowing a network-aware software-defined functionality and open modular development, and pursue cost reduction by the seamless integration of off-the-shelf components.
- Push CV-QKD performance boundary forward by developing photonic integrated circuits (PIC) for CV-QKD.
- Prepare actively for next-generation networks by developing core enabling technologies and protocols aiming at quantum communication over global distances with minimal trust assumptions.
CiViQ will culminate in a validation in a real telecom network environment. Project-specific network integration and software development work will empower QKD to be used as a physical-layer-anchor securing critical infrastructures, with demonstration in QKD-extended software-defined networks.
CiViQ unites a broad interdisciplinary community of 21 partners, involving major telecoms, integrators, and developers of QKD:
- 11 Research Institutes: The Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO), National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT), Polytechnic University of Madrid - Center for Computational Simulation (UPM-CCS), Palacký University Olomouc (UPOL), Fraunhofer Heinrich-Hertz-Institute (HHI), Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Télécom ParisTech (TPT), Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light (MPL), University of York (UY), and French Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation (INRIA).
- 7 Telecom Companies: Telefónica, Deutsche Telekom AG, Orange, Huawei Technologies Düsseldorf GmbH (HWDU), Nokia Bell Labs France (NBLF), Coriant GbmH, and Mellanox Technologies (MLNX),
- 3 Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs): Quside Technologies, VLC Photonics, and Nextworks.
