Cisco has formally launched its Quantum Networking Lab in Santa Monica, California alongside the introduction of a prototype quantum entanglement chip developed with UC Santa Barbara. The photonic integrated chip generates up to one million entangled photon pairs per second at room temperature, operates at telecom wavelengths for compatibility with existing fiber infrastructure, maintains energy efficiency under 1mW, achieves fidelities of up to 99%. Designed to support distributed quantum computing, the chip represents a foundational component in Cisco’s vision for scalable quantum data centers and secure quantum communication networks.
The entanglement chip forms part of Cisco’s broader quantum infrastructure strategy, which includes the development of quantum switches, entanglement distribution protocols, a distributed quantum compiler, and a quantum random number generator (QRNG). In parallel, the company is aligning its classical product portfolio with Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) standards to ensure security during the quantum transition. Cisco positions this infrastructure as vendor-agnostic, designed to interconnect various quantum computing modalities including superconducting, ion trap, and neutral atom systems.
Cisco’s quantum networking roadmap draws from its legacy in classical network scaling, aiming to accelerate the timeline for practical quantum computing from decades to a few years. The approach emphasizes both near-term classical applications—such as quantum-secure communication, ultra-precise time synchronization, and tamper-proof location authentication—and long-term quantum-native use cases including distributed quantum computing and sensing. Cisco underscores that its system is vendor-agnostic, enabling integration across diverse quantum hardware platforms.
For more about the research being performed at Cisco’s Quantum Lab, visit a blog posted on their website here. And you can view here an arXiv paper that presents their ideas for the design of a scalable quantum network that utilize optical switches to interconnect multiple quantum processors.
May 6, 2025
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