A Components Based Framework for Quantum Key Distribution Networks

The difficulties related to operating basic quantum communication technologies and the inherent limitations of their direct transmission distances, be these be a consequence of absorption or optical aperture, leads to the fact that current generations of Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) systems are essentially designed to work in a stand-alone mode on a single link. This limits their utility and the potential impact on the market. To avoid these barriers, it is necessary to advance towards systems built for a network. QKD systems have to perform as network devices, and ideally on an equal footing with other telecom devices, without requiring any specialized or ad hoc tuning. To achieve this “zero-touch” integration, it is necessary to build a software ecosystem. This software should take a bare QKD system and provide all the information, so that the network can manage and the applications use the system. Here we present a SW architecture, based on components with a well-defined functionality, to build the SW ecosystem needed to deploy QKD systems in networks. The components support traditional and Software Defined Networks (SDN), as well as separated or integrated (sharing infrastructure) networks to improve their industrialization.