credit: Cisco
Comparing it to the impact on HPC that Beowulf clusters had in 1994, Cisco today said its new quantum networking technology will connect smaller quantum nodes and make “quantum computing practical years ahead of current timelines.”
The key to practical quantum computing is connecting nodes using network infrastructures to create powerful distributed systems, said Vijoy Pandey, GM/SVP of Outshift, Cisco’s internal incubation group. Just as clusters expanded the power of classical supercomputers, “the future of quantum does not lie in a single monolithic quantum computer. Scaled-out quantum data centers, where processors work together through specialized networking, will be the practical and achievable path forward.”
Today’s quantum processors are limited to hundreds of qubits, while practical quantum applications require millions. But even the most ambitious quantum computing roadmaps only target a few thousand qubits by 2030.
Pandey said Cisco’s quantum networking technologies will allow quantum scaling. “By building this infrastructure now, Cisco is helping to accelerate the entire quantum ecosystem,” he said.“Our approach could accelerate impactful quantum computing and networking applications from decades away to just five-10 years.”
He said today’s news includes:
1. Cisco’s Quantum Network Entanglement Chip – a research prototype that enables quantum networks to connect quantum processors for practical applications
2. Cisco Quantum Labs – a research lab in Santa Monica, CA, dedicated to quantum and where quantum scientists and engineers are developing quantum networking technologies
Vijoy Pandey
The network entanglement chip, developed in collaboration with UC Santa Barbara, generates pairs of entangled photons that enable instant connection regardless of distance through quantum teleportation, according to Cisco, which Einstein famously described as “spooky action at a distance.”¹
Cisco said its entanglement chip:
• Works with existing infrastructure: Operates at standard telecom wavelengths and can leverage existing fiber optic infrastructure
• Deployment: Functions at room temperature as a miniaturized Photonic Integrated Chip (PIC), making it suitable for scalable system deployment today
• Efficiency: Consumes less than 1mW of power
• Performance: 1 million high-fidelity entanglement pairs per output channel, with a rate of up to 200 million entanglement pairs per second in chip
Pandey said Cisco has been working on its quantum networking stack for years. He said their approach is detailed in the arXiv paper “Quantum Data Center Infrastructures,” which outlines their distributed quantum computing systems architecture.
He said the company also is developing prototypes of other components of the quantum networking stack, including entanglement distribution protocols, a distributed quantum computing compiler, Quantum Network Development Kit (QNDK), and a Quantum Random Number Generator (QRNG) using quantum vacuum noise.
In parallel, Cisco teams are implementing Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) NIST standards across their portfolio.
Pandey said Cisco’s quantum networking strategy follows two paths:
• Quantum Network for the Quantum World: infrastructure to connect quantum processors at scale, enabling distributed quantum computing, quantum sensing, and optimization algorithms.
• Quantum Network for the Classical World: Quantum networking principles offer benefits to classical systems now, Pandey said, through use cases such as eavesdropper-proof secure communication, ultra-precise time synchronization, decision signaling, and secure location verification.
Pandey said that while other companies focus solely on one type of quantum computing technology (superconducting, ion trap, or neutral atom-based systems), Cisco is building a vendor-agnostic framework that works with any quantum computing technology. “This approach mirrors Cisco’s historical strength in networking – we don’t need to pick winners because we’re building the networking fabric that will enable various quantum technologies to scale,” he said.
