Durban Quantum City

Physicists at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Centre for Quantum Technology (CQT) are all set to install a quantum communication security solution over the eThekwini Municipality fibre-optic network infrastructure propelling the City of Durban to become the world’s first Quantum City. Based on the eThekwini SmartCity initiative, the QuantumCity project aims to provide the City with the capabilities to offer quantum security solutions to users of their recently installed fibre-optic network. The quantum network was officially showcased to the public at the SmartCity Conference and Expo at the Albert Luthuli ICC in Durban between 1-2 October 2008.

Durban is the SmartCity of Africa with a complete fibre-optic network able to share its broadband access to vital services, businesses, schools, hospitals and tertiary institutions. However the global drive towards communication security has prompted it to leap into the Quantum regime.  The QuantumCity project allows the vital services of the City to communicate securely. Such a network paves the way for further roll out of quantum security solutions to other clients of the eThekwini Municipal network creating the first Quantum City in the World. Such a network will be of interest to government agencies, finance houses and large corporate clients in securing their confidential data.

The QuantumCity project is led by the Centre for Quantum Technology and the Innovation Company of the University of KwaZulu-Natal in partnership with idQuantique and Senetas Corporation, leading companies in quantum and classical encryption. The project is funded by the eThekwini Municipality and the Innovation Fund (an instrument of the National Research Foundation). City Manager, Dr Michael Sutcliffe, believes that quantum information and communication technology will not only boost the transformation of the Municipality into a high-tech information-driven organization, but also turn Durban into an incubator for future technologies.

With the introduction of the new technology the eThekwini’s concept of a SmartCity has taken a quantum leap with the implementation of quantum security over the eThekwini municipal fibre-optical network. This quantum network is designed to provide ultra-secure communication. The quantum network consists of four nodes in a Municipal Area Network star configuration linking municipal buildings in Pinetown and Westville. The security of quantum cryptography is based on the physical principles of quantum mechanics, rather than on the algorithmic procedures of classical cryptography.

With the cryptographic key providing the uniqueness, and hence security, of the encryption algorithm, the focal challenge in the field of cryptography is the key distribution process. Conventional methods to overcome this hurdle, such as public key cryptography, take advantage of complexities in mathematical algorithms. However, the enhancement of computing power, with the advent of the quantum computer, and the vulnerability of classical cryptographic techniques to mathematical advancement, has the potential to compromise and discredit the long-term security of critical data. 

Quantum cryptography provides a means of Quantum Key Distribution (QKD). Professor Francesco Petruccione, head of the Research Centre states, “This shifts the security of cryptographic protocols from mathematical complexities to the intrinsic physical behaviour of quantum particles. Thus the security is upheld through the laws of quantum mechanics”. Essentially, any observation of a quantum system infers a change of state of the system thus modifying the key and permitting the detection of an eavesdropper. This is formalised through Heisenberg's uncertainty principle which provides a physical means of protecting the data while in transit.

Quantum cryptography implements the One-Time-Pad encryption scheme. Since in the One-Time-Pad, the key is used only once and is completely random, it cannot be predicted beforehand by the sender, receiver or eavesdropper. The major advantage of quantum cryptography is that the One-Time-Pad encryption scheme provides unconditional security over an insecure communication channel, ideal for the long-term protection of critical data.

Abdul Mirza, a physicist at CQT states, “A Quantum network implements QKD in a multi-node ‘key-on-demand’ environment permitting transparent integration of quantum cryptography into current optical fibre infrastructure. This combines the power of fibre-optic technology with ultra-high quantum security, providing an unsurpassed communication solution”.

The CQT was established in 2005 under the leadership of Professor Francesco Petruccione. The Centre was recently identified as the National Quantum Information Science Research Niche Area by the National Research Foundation within the Institutional Research Development Programme. Quantum Information Processing and Communications (QIPC) has also been identified as an emerging technology in the National Photonics Initiative (PISA). The Centre investigates both theoretical and experimental aspects of QIPC. CQT’s primary research within QIPC is the development of a QKD device, the realisation of quantum networks and theoretical studies into open quantum systems.

For further information regarding the project contact:

Professor Francesco Petruccione
Director
Centre for Quantum Technology (A Research Group of UKZN)
Tel:     +27 31 260 2770
email: petruccione@ukzn.ac.za

Abdul Mirza
Project Manager (QuantumCity Project)
Centre for Quantum Technology (A Research Group of UKZN)
Tel:     +27 31 260 7991
email: mirzaa@ukzn.ac.za