BT has conducted a trial of Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) over hollow core fibre cable developed by Lumenisity, a spin out from Southampton University.
Testing of Nested Anti-Resonant Nodeless Fibre (NANF) hollow core fibre kicked off this summer at the BT Labs in Ipswich.
BT researchers operated a state-of-the-art QKD system using commercial equipment over a 6-kilometre-long Lumenisity CoreSmart cable with a hollow, air-filled centre, revealing potential benefits such as reduced latency and no appreciable crosstalk – the effect of a transmitted signal interfering with the transmission of another signal.
Professor Andrew Lord, BT’s Head of Optical Network Research, said: “This is an exciting milestone for BT, accelerating the UK’s lead in quantum technologies that will play an important role in future communications systems globally. We’ve proven a range of benefits that can be realised by deploying hollow core fibre for quantum-secure communication. Hollow core fibre’s low latency and ability to send QKD over a single fibre with other signals is a critical advancement for the future of secure communications.”
Tony Pearson, VP Sales and Marketing at Lumenisity, said: “We are excited to be identifying new applications for our field deployable CoreSmart cable solutions and working with the BT team on the first trial in the world of this kind. This milestone further accentuates not just the capability of our hollow core cable solutions, offering low latency and high bandwidth, but also demonstrating the potential CoreSmart has in new applications thanks to ultra low non-linearity and dispersion across a broad spectrum, perfect for networks operated by our Carrier partners.”
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