Cisco Quantum Labs Reveals New Software As Part Of Its ‘Full-Stack’ Networking Approach

The tech giant says that its quantum networking strategy will take a page out of its industry-leading networking portfolio’s book by also adopting a full-stack approach.

As part of its forward-looking networking push, Cisco Systems on Thursday revealed new quantum networking software that makes distributed quantum computing “work,” the company said.

Cisco will take the same “full-stack” approach to its quantum networking strategy as it has with its longstanding and industry-leading networking portfolio, according to Vijoy Pandey, general manager and senior vice president of Outshift by Cisco, the company’s incubation and research arm for emerging technologies.

“Today’s quantum computers are stuck at hundreds of qubits when real-world applications need millions. We can either wait decades for perfect quantum processors, or we can network existing ones together now. We chose now,” Pandey said in a blog post published on Thursday.

To that end, Cisco released three research prototypes to advance Cisco’s quantum strategy.

The first research prototype is Quantum Compiler, in which Cisco is calling the industry’s first network-aware distributed quantum compiler that allows quantum algorithms to run across multiple networked processors. Cisco also announced an “industry-first” distributed quantum error correction algorithm, the company said.

The second prototype, called Quantum Alert, is an application demo for what Cisco calls “eavesdropper-proof security with guarantees from physics, not promises from classical software.”

Lastly is Quantum Sync, a decision coordination application demo that uses entanglement for correlated decision-making across distributed locations for classical use cases.

“All three applications run on a unified quantum networking software stack - the missing infrastructure that makes quantum computers work together instead of alone,” Pandey said.

Cisco is accustomed to building high-performing systems from start to finish, Pandey said.

“For classical networking, we design and build this stack from the ground up – custom silicon, integrated hardware systems, and all the layers of software that control and manage everything. It’s the philosophy that enabled us to pioneer many of the foundational technologies of the classical internet, from the core of the data center to the edge of wireless networks and all the connectivity in between,” he said.

Pandey said that same systems-level approach will be applied to quantum networking.

“Just as we did for the classical internet, we’re building a full quantum networking stack from the ground up: developing quantum networking silicon, control software including protocols and controllers for managing the quantum network, and quantum networking applications that solve existing problems in the quantum and classical worlds,” he said.

Cisco entered the quantum networking arena in May after launching a quantum chip and opening a quantum lab in Santa Monica, California. Cisco later in June made history when it became the first enterprise Fortune 500 company to make a public investment in quantum networking infrastructure. Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Qunnect, a builder of quantum networking infrastructure, in June announced the closing of an oversubscribed Series A extended financing round of $10 million that included participation from Cisco Investments.