Delivering a system hardened, scalable, and interoperable QKD solution (DHSI-QKD)

该项目提供了为电信生产环境设计的下一代QKD解决方案。该系统解决了当前产品无法满足的额外近期市场需求；高水平的安全性、健壮性和网络灵活性——所有这些都以快速和大规模的方式交付。随着QKD的部署越来越广泛，从基于实验室的验证过渡到国家测试平台和商业试验和服务，网络和数据中心运营商对QKD产品的要求越来越高，这些特性在其运营堆栈中的其他技术中是标准的。挑战是三重的；首先，在关键任务数据环境中部署需要一种目前在QKD系统中尚未广泛提供的安全级别。其次，在复杂网络中部署需要一定程度的灵活性，这是点对点QKD产品难以实现的；第三，随着对量子安全通信需求的增长，解决方案必须非常可靠，并且可以大规模使用。虽然目前的QKD系统可以提供其中的一些功能，但市场上没有一种产品可以满足全部要求。因此，对于能够提供客户所要求的规模、安全性和灵活性的市场进入者来说，这是一个重要的机会。通过交付QKD系统，首次满足市场对安全性、可靠性和灵活性的关键需求，我们可以确保英国能够成为商业量子安全通信全球供应链的核心。

This project delivers a next generation QKD solution designed for telecommunications production environments. This system addresses additional near term market demands not met by current offerings; high levels of security, robustness and networking flexibility - all whilst being delivered at speed and at scale.As deployment of QKD becomes more widespread, transitioning from lab-based verification to national testbeds & commercial trials and services, network and data centre operators are increasingly demanding features in QKD products that are standard in other technologies in their operational stack.The challenge is threefold; firstly, deployment in mission critical data environments demands a level of security currently not widely available in QKD systems. Secondly, deployment in complex networks requires a level of flexibility not easily achieved with point to point QKD products; and thirdly, as the demand for quantum-safe communications grows, the solutions must be extremely reliable and be available at scale.Whilst current QKD systems can offer some of these features, there is not a single product on the market that can meet the full set of requirements. As a result, there is a significant opportunity for an entrant into the market that can provide the scale, security and flexibility that customers are demanding.By delivering a QKD system that meets the key demands from the market of security, reliability and flexibility at scale for the first time, we can ensure that the UK can be at the heart of the global supply chain for commercial quantum-safe communications.