The project Q-networks aims to put into motion the first steps of the quantum internet.

On 2022, the research groups of the ICREA Profs. at ICFO Hugues de Riedmatten and Valerio Pruneri joined forces with Europe’s leading operator of telecommunications infrastructures,Cellnex Telecom, owner of the biggest optical fiber network in Barcelona, and Catalunya, and who manages its services through the Xarxa Oberta de Catalunya (XOC).

The consortium will develop and deploy a quantum repeater node outside the lab, in the Barcelona area, and distribute entanglement between a repeater node at ICFO and the one in Barcelona, using the installed fiber optic network. It will also develop novel practical sources of photonic quantum entanglement and use them to implement cryptography protocols, such as Quantum Key Distribution (QKD), establishing a completely secure quantum communication between the two sites to demonstrate a quantum secure link and the effect of entanglement between both nodes.

With this, it is also intended to demonstrate that quantum communication technologies can be easily integrated into current classical telecom networks.

The project PLEC2021-007669 is funded by MCIN/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033 and by the “European Union NextGenerationEU/PRTR”