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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - QCALL (Quantum Communications for ALL)

Teaser

Summary

Quantum Communications for ALL (QCALL) endeavors to take the next necessary steps to bring the developing quantum technologies closer to the doorsteps of end users. Quantum communications (QC) is well-known for its offering ultrasecure cryptographic key-exchange schemesâ€”resilient to any future technological advancement. QCALL will empower a nucleus of researchers in this area to provide secure communications in our continent and, in the long run, to our connections worldwide. With the large scale violations of privacy in the EU exchange of information, this is a crucial moment to pursue this objective. This is in line with recent activities enabled by the EU Quantum Flagship Programme and will expedite its progress. By covering a range of projects, with short, mid, and long-term visions, and using a balanced and multifaceted training programme, QCALL trains a cadre of highly qualified interdisciplinary workforce capable of shaping the R&D section of the field, hence accelerating its widespread adoption. This will ensure that EU will remain at the frontier of research on secure communications and advanced QC systems and devices. In QCALL, we explore the challenges of integrating quantum and classical communication networks; this will be essential in providing cost-efficient services. We experimentally examine and theoretically study new protocols by which network users can exchange secure keys with each other. We investigate disruptive technologies that enable wireless access to such quantum networks, and develop new devices and protocols that enable multi-party QC. Our meticulously planned training programme includes components from shared taught courses through to scientific schools and complementary-skill workshops, supplemented by secondment opportunities and innovative outreach and dissemination activities. This will create a structured model for doctoral training in EU that will last beyond the life of the project, so will the industry-academic collaborations that are essential to the development of the disruptive technologies that will make QC available to ALL.

Work performed

In the first two years of the project, researchers at QCALL have been able to make substantial progress towards the objectives of the project. In particular,
- QCALL web page, as the main interface to communicate the activities planned by QCALL, has been up and running since day 1, i.e., 1 Dec 2016.
- We had a successful recruitment period with all early-stage researchers (ESRs) in post by Oct 2017.
- Our training agenda has been followed and implemented in full. We have organised scientific schools and workshops as proposed. In particular,
we had our kick-off meeting in Leeds, in Oct 2017, followed by a complimentary skill (CS) workshop on project management and web page development, which culminated with all ESRs launching their own project web page;
We successfully organised and delivered the scientific school on quantum secure communications (SQSC) in May 2018, in Vigo, Spain, with 70+ participants from across the world;
We successfully organised and delivered the scientific school on quantum communications networks (SQCN) in Sept 2018, in Padova, Italy, with around 70 participants from across the world; and
We successfully organised and delivered the second CS workshop on presentation and writing skills in Sept 2018 in Padova, Italy.
- All ESRs have been involved with an outreach activity in their first year of studies.
- All ESRs are enrolled as PhD students in one of the beneficiary universities involved.
- All ESRs have had, or have arranged, visits/secondments to relevant partner organisations and/or other beneficiary partners.
- In terms of research outcomes, we are on track with, or ahead of, the original plans. In this short span of time, our cohort has published nearly 30 journal and conference papers, some of which will appear in Nature group publications, or other highly cited journals. Over 10 journal papers are also under review.

Final results

QCALL has managed to advance the state of the art in several aspects:

- ESRs at Toshiba Research Europe Ltd (TREL) have developed chip-based technology for QKD encoders that rely on time-bin encoding. This has historically been a difficult task to be implemented on chip as the conventional techniques relying on interferometers are quite lossy and unbalanced. Such encoders are the best option for QKD on fibre, which is an important part of any QKD networks. They have also contributed to the implementation of one of the most recent QKD protocol, known as twin-field QKD, which improves the rate-versus-distance scaling in an unprecedented way.
- ESR at Telecom ParisTech has developed new hybrid cryptography frameworks that accounts for realistic limitations for an eavesdropper. This is in contrast with what typically assumed in QKD in giving the eavesdropper maximum possible power. The former, however, has opened up new the possibility of designing new, and more efficient, protocols that will find use in certain practical applications.
- ESR at ID Quantique (IDQ) has tested new hacking strategies and developed their countermeasures in the context of commercial QKD devices.
- ESRs at the University of Vigo have developed new techniques for analysing the security of QKD systems under flaws that appear in their implementation.
- ESRs at the University of Leeds have addressed the rate-versus-distance improvement via systems that rely on imperfect quantum memories all the way to advanced quantum repeater systems. Their analysis show how one can achieve higher key generation rates in realistic memory-assisted QKD systems in the finite-key regime.
- ESRs at the University of Padova have developed new beam alignment techniques for free-space QKD as well as semi device independent methods for quantum random number generation.
- ESRs at the University of Dusseldorf have developed analytical techniques for hybrid satellite-repeater systems as well as QKD techniques for multi-partite quantum communications.
- ESRs at the University of Geneva have tested new rare-earth-ion-doped material for quantum storage and have shown the possibility of storing multiple modes of light. They have also developed simple and secure QKD protocols that eases the way for widespread deployment of QKD. And,
- ESR at Sorbonne University has developed a generic framework to prove the security of continuous-variable QKD systems.

In addition to developing state of the art technology that enables quantum secure communications, QCALL has the potential to provide useful policy feedbacks in the area of digital economy. The security of our digital transactions, among other things, is threatened by the advent of quantum computers. It is therefore important to update our infrastructure, and services run over it, in time to be prepared for secure operation in the quantum era. QCALL project has the potential to contribute to the standardisation activities conducted at European Telecommunication Standard Institute (ETSI) Industry Specification Group (ISG) on QKD. Several beneficiary members and partner organisation of QCALL, e.g., TREL, IDQ, University of Waterloo and Technical University of Madrid, are already members of this ISG. The work done by QCALL researchers can then shape the contributions made by these member partners. This ISG also hosts a large number of telecom operators, which would be the key to getting access to large markets for QKD technologies.