Portuguese Quantum Communications Infrastructure

ended

Portugal as one of the member states supporting EQCI, joined key stakeholders, to be involved into the development of the national segment (land and space) of the EQCI. In the past few years, companies and research centers in Portuguese have advanced in theoretical and practical experiments related with quantum key distribution (QKD) and cryptographic protocols to be used in a quantum network, resulting in successful field trials like the quantum secure link between two sites of Estado Maior das Forças Armadas (PT-MOD/EMGFA) successfully done in June 2021, showing that Portugal has the knowledge and technology for deploying secure quantum networks. Also in 2021, DISCRETION, a project for the European Defence (EDIDP), led by Portugal and with the participation of Spain, Italy and Austria kicked-off. It aims at integrating and combining Software Defined Networks (SDN) and Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) technologies on top of legacy optical networks to build a highly secure, scalable and resilient network control architecture for advanced operational services and develop national cipher machines. PTQCI follows DISCRETION, to deploy the initial seed of euroQCI network in Portugal, over existing fiber optics connecting 4 governmental sites in Metropolitan Lisbon, framed on a roadmap and governance model for its evolution into a larger scale connection to euroQCI, including space and cross border connections, plus supporting a strong technological push, and fostering the creation of new jobs, technical skills and dissemination of knowledge on secure networks to the community.