Cisco switch aims to network quantum computers

Cisco has come up with  the Cisco Universal Quantum Switch, which claims to accept and translate between all major encoding modalities without destroying the quantum information in the process. M

The switch routes quantum information while preserving it at room temperature, on existing telecom fibre, with a Cisco-patented conversion engine that translates between encoding modalities at input and output.

“We’ve long recognized that connecting quantum systems is the key to achieving true scalability,” says Cisco svp Vijoy Pandey.

Today’s quantum computers operate at hundreds of qubits when real-world applications in healthcare, financial services, and aerospace will need millions.

 Cisco believes networking and connectivity are central to bridging that gap.

The quantum future will not be built by any one company or any one technology. It will be built by connecting them all.

This is made possible by a Cisco-patented conversion engine at the heart of the quantum switch. The output modality can match the input or be an entirely different one, enabling the quantum switch to connect and translate between quantum systems that were never designed to talk to each other, a critical capability for building quantum networks that work across different vendors and technologies.

The quantum switch is designed to support all major quantum encoding modalities used to carry information:

• Polarization (the orientation of light waves)
• Time-Bin (the timing of light pulses)
• Frequency-Bin (the color or frequency of light)
• Path (the physical or spatial path)

To date, the quantum switch has been experimentally validated with polarization encoding. 

Support for time-bin and frequency-bin is built into the design and represents the next step in Cisco’s ongoing validation process.

The Cisco Universal Quantum Switch was tested by Cisco researchers using Cisco’s own entanglement source and single-photon detectors. 

In these experiments, the switch demonstrated that quantum information can be routed and converted across systems quickly, accurately, and efficiently, without destroying it in the process.