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International Conference on Quantum Communications, Networking, and Computing (QCNC)

Interoperable Multi-Vendor, Multi-Domain, Multi-Layer, Multi-Service Quantum Key Distribution Network Field-Trial

Konstantinos Tsimvrakidis, Alkinoos Papageorgopoulos, Florian Kutschera, Stephan Laschet, Sebastian Ramacher, Paul James, Luca Torresetti, Nikolaos Makris, Persefoni Konteli, Jaime S. Buruaga, Rafael J. Vicente, Yorlandy Lobaina, Juan P. Brito, Petros Papapetropoulos, Ilias Papastamatiou, Hannes Hübel, Vicente Martin, George Theodore Kanellos

Published Apr 6, 2026• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A multi-vendor, multi-domain Quantum Key Distribution network comprising 15 nodes across three independently managed domains was deployed and operated during QCI Days 2025 in Athens. The large-scale field trial integrated heterogenous QKD technologies, multi-layer Key Management Systems, and SDN-controlled infrastructures into a unified inter-domain architecture enabling cross-domain key exchange and coordination. The setup combined in-rack domain nodes extended to a 4-node field-deployed metropolitan QKD network segment, providing a realistic operational environment for validating end-to-end functionality. Multiple QKD-enabled services were successfully supported across the federated infrastructure, proving the technical feasibility and viability of scalable QKD deployments in inter-domain settings.

DOI
10.1109/qcnc69040.2026.00038

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A multi-vendor, multi-domain Quantum Key Distribution network comprising 15 nodes across three independently managed domains was deployed and operated during QCI Days 2025 in Athens. The large-scale field trial integrated heterogenous QKD technologies, multi-layer Key Management Systems, and SDN-controlled infrastructures into a unified inter-domain architecture enabling cross-domain key exchange and coordination. The setup combined in-rack domain nodes extended to a 4-node field-deployed metropolitan QKD network segment, providing a realistic operational environment for validating end-to-end functionality. Multiple QKD-enabled services were successfully supported across the federated infrastructure, proving the technical feasibility and viability of scalable QKD deployments in inter-domain settings.
The global Internet appears to users as a unified, seamless infrastructure, but in reality, it is composed of multiple interconnected networks: separate domains with different management and policies. This unified behavior is made possible by complexity-hiding mechanisms and inter-domain coordination protocols, which are critical components of modern networking. As we approach a paradigm shift driven by quantum technologies, new challenges and opportunities emerge. Quantum information processing enables capabilities that classical systems cannot achieve, including the potential to compromise public key infrastructures that support today’s network security. Quantum key distribution (QKD) offers a promising avenue by implementing a key agreement protocol that is information-theoretically secure against computational attack. However, to fully leverage QKD, networks must be adapted to the unique constraints of quantum communication, integrating both quantum bit transmission and secure key distribution across multiple domains. This paper discusses the interconnection of quantum key distribution networks (QKDNs) and presents a distributed, standards-aligned orchestration mechanism designed to manage QKD networks spanning multiple administrative domains. Our solution builds on existing QKDN standards to facilitate interoperability and practical deployment in heterogeneous environments and has been validated on a heterogeneous multi-domain network comprising three interconnected autonomous domains.
The advent of cryptographically relevant quantum computers poses an existential threat to classical public-key infrastructure. Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) addresses this challenge by providing information-theoretic security for key establishment, independently of any computational hardness assumption. In this work, the deployment and experimental validation of a metropolitan-scale quantum-secure network between data centers in Milan is reported. The network operates over installed fiber infrastructure and implements a layered architecture integrating QKD hardware, standards-compliant Key Management (KM), and centralized Software-Defined Networking (SDN) orchestration. Dynamic path reconfiguration via active optical switching and trusted-node routing allow automated fail-over solutions. Application-layer validation across diverse protocols and workloads confirms the seamless interoperability of all system components. These results establish the technical and operational readiness of metropolitan QKD networks for production deployment, and offer a replicable blueprint for building quantum-secure communication infrastructure at metropolitan scale.
Quantum key distribution (QKD) offers unconditional security but existing QKD networks remain difficult to scale across heterogeneous infrastructures and administrative domains due to vendor-specific interfaces, trusted-node constraints, and limited interoperability. This work presents a flexible multi-domain and multi-site quantum-secure network architecture integrating vendor-agnostic QKD, SDN orchestration, and cloud-managed trust services. Communication is based on Zero Trust Network Access protocols featuring multi-level authentication mechanisms building upon post-quantum cryptography (PQC) signature and key encapsulation algorithms. The system is deployed on a real-world testbed with domains incorporating QKD nodes from 3 vendors, as well as domains without QKD infrastructure elements. Experimental results show that PQC and SDN overhead remain relatively low even on constrained devices, with the main bottleneck being QKD key retrieval and vendor-specific key streaming limitations. The proposed framework extends quantum-safe key transport beyond native QKD boundaries while preserving flexibility, interoperability, and compatibility with existing infrastructures.
Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) has progressed from a theoretical cryptographic concept to an emerging secure communication infrastructure technology. While early work focused on protocol security and physical-layer feasibility, current research increasingly addresses scalable network deployment, hardware acceleration, and integration with classical communication systems. As QKD expands from point-to-point links to metropolitan, backbone, and hybrid satellite–terrestrial networks, new engineering challenges arise in topology design, entropy generation, real-time key distillation, and multi-vendor interoperability. This survey provides an infrastructure-oriented review of QKD networks, examining architectural models, quantum randomness as a root of trust, FPGA and system-on-chip (SoC) based acceleration techniques, and programmable control-plane integration. Key management system architectures and standardized interfaces are analyzed to highlight their roles in enabling scalable, interoperable deployments. The paper also synthesizes major standardization efforts and deployment initiatives shaping carrier-grade QKD infrastructures. Finally, open engineering challenges, including scalability, control-plane integration, certification harmonization, and hybridization with post-quantum cryptography, are identified, positioning QKD as a foundational component of next-generation secure communication systems.
QKD technology is being increasingly adopted inside the network core for protecting information transport against any form of computational attacks. However, the use of QKD for wide-area internetworking is still challenging and costly, due to its strong trust assumptions and the low achievable key rates in long QKD links. This paper presents a standards-driven design and implementation of a unified hybrid key delivery service for a network of isolated QKD domains (subnetworks using QKD as provider technology for secret key generation) connected via classical WAN links. The framework follows a distributed architecture and uses a hybrid approach where keys generated in a domain are securely relayed to other domains with PQC (Kyber), dynamically routed, and managed at the system level. The solution has been implemented in an operational testbed comprising three regional subnetworks. We present the design principles, the deployment, and the experimental performance results for this scalable key delivery service.