• Cisco is determined to play a key role in connecting quantum computers
• It believes it has developed a switch that can route quantum data over standard optical fibres at room temperature
• The innovation enables the sharing of quantum information between different types of quantum system 

Cisco believes it has overcome one of the major challenges of quantum networking by developing a prototype switch that can successfully connect multiple quantum computers of different types. 

The vendor, which is desperate to play a key role in the quantum networking era, claims its Universal Quantum Switch can connect quantum systems from different vendors, “in all major encoding modalities, at room temperature, over standard telecom fibre” – it operates at standard telecom frequencies over the same type of fibre strands that carry internet traffic. It can also route quantum information between the various systems while preserving it “with a Cisco-patented conversion engine that translates between all encoding and entanglement modalities at input and output”.

Cisco describes its achievement as a “critical milestone in quantum networking that addresses one of the most fundamental barriers to building a quantum network,” as “there is no established infrastructure connecting quantum systems, and most can only communicate with other systems that encode information the same way they do.”

That’s because quantum computers encode information in different ways and, until now, according to the vendor, “no switch could accept and translate between all major encoding modalities without destroying the quantum information in the process. The Cisco Universal Quantum Switch is designed to address this challenge.”

According to Cisco, which is recognised as one of the leading vendors in the rapidly developing quantum-safe networking sector, the quantum switch can “connect and translate between quantum systems that were never designed to talk to each other, a critical capability for building quantum networks that work across different vendors and technologies.”

Vijoy Pandey, senior VP of Outshift, Cisco’s Emerging Technologies and Incubation Group, gushed: “We’ve long recognised that connecting quantum systems is the key to achieving true scalability, and now we’ve taken a critical step towards making that vision a reality. While this is a significant achievement, it’s just the beginning. The road ahead is long, yet the impact of what we are building – and what is still to come – will be nothing short of profound.”

The Cisco Universal Quantum Switch was tested by Cisco researchers using the vendor’s own entanglement source and single-photon detectors. “In these experiments, the switch demonstrated that quantum information can be routed and converted across systems quickly, accurately and efficiently, without destroying it in the process,” claimed the vendor. 

The Universal Quantum Switch is part of a broader quantum networking portfolio (including the Quantum Network Entanglement Chip) developed by Cisco, which is collaborating with IBM on a mission to enable practical, distributed and networked quantum computing “by the early 2030s”. 

For the latest developments in quantum networking, see TelecomTV's dedicated quantum technology section.  

- Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV