Aliro Technologies and zerothird Demonstrate Operational Entanglement-Based Quantum Networking with Cisco 8000 Series Routers

Aliro Technologies and zerothird have demonstrated a live entanglement-based quantum key distribution network managed by Aliro Orchestrator at the Cisco Photonics Center in Vimercate, Italy. The deployment runs on commercially available rack-mountable hardware using the BBM92 protocol and delivers finished quantum keys to Cisco 8000 Series routers through the Cisco SKIP interface, enabling quantum-safe MACsec sessions on production networking equipment.

Hardware Integration and Control Plane

zerothird supplies the complete entanglement-based key generation system, including BBM92 end nodes, the entanglement-distribution link, and the full on-device stack covering sifting, polarization alignment and tracking, clock synchronization, error correction, and privacy amplification. Aliro Orchestrator functions as the quantum network management layer and continuously ingests telemetry from the zerothird system to monitor eavesdropper detection, quantum bit error rate (QBER), key generation rates, photon detection statistics, polarization drift, and overall link and device health.

When metrics cross defined thresholds, the Orchestrator’s Alerts & Alarms engine raises security and operational events and can initiate automated remediation workflows that include recalibration, traffic rerouting, or safe link shutdown. All events are timestamped to create an auditable operational record. At the application layer the finished keys are delivered via the Cisco SKIP interface into Cisco 8000 Series routers, establishing live quantum-secure MACsec encrypted sessions without requiring custom application modifications.

Enterprise Interoperability and Market Readiness

The demonstration constitutes Aliro’s first quantum network deployment in Europe and shows that entanglement-based QKD can operate as managed infrastructure rather than a research assembly. By combining zerothird’s automated physical-layer platform with Aliro’s control plane and Cisco’s production routers, the partners validate a full-stack architecture that network operators can treat as a standard IT service.

Michael Cubeddu, Co-founder and CTO at Aliro, stated that commercializing quantum networks requires delivering solutions operators can run without specialized quantum expertise. Maurizio Gazzola, Senior Director of Optical Architecture at Cisco, emphasized the seamless interoperability achieved by managing third-party QKD hardware through Aliro Orchestrator and feeding keys into Cisco 8000 Series routers via SKIP.

Felix Tiefenbacher, CEO of zerothird, noted that multi-vendor interoperability is essential for quantum networking to scale commercially. The result supplies organizations evaluating quantum-secure communications with a concrete operational reference implemented entirely on commercially available hardware and software.

Bottom Line

Aliro and zerothird’s Cisco-managed deployment confirms operational multi-vendor entanglement-based QKD is ready for production networking environments.

Find out more here.

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