Speaker
Description
The Galician Supercomputing Centre (CESGA) is developing a quantum communications infrastructure to support research, experimentation and the future deployment of secure quantum-enabled services across Galicia, Spain and Europe. These activities are aligned with the European Quantum Communication Infrastructure (EuroQCI) initiative and are being reinforced through IberianQCI, a cross-border project focused on interconnecting quantum communication infrastructures in Spain and Portugal.
Through its "Quantum Highway" project, CESGA deployed a ~125 km quantum key distribution (QKD) link between Santiago de Compostela and Vigo — using single-mode fibre free of optical amplifiers to preserve quantum information — with the collaboration of the Vigo Quantum Communications Center under Spain's Complementary Quantum Communication Plan (PCCC). The project is already being used to demonstrate use cases such as 5G network security and interoperable QKD network management software for wide-area networks.
Building on this, CESGA is a partner in IberianQCI (2026–2029), which will extend the network across the Iberian Peninsula through a terrestrial fibre backbone between Vigo and Valença do Minho and satellite links via optical ground stations in Vigo, Lisbon, Madrid and Barcelona — connecting the Spanish (SpainQCI) and Portuguese (PTQCI) national quantum networks to the European quantum space segment.
We will present the infrastructures and services deployed, the ongoing works, and will open to a discussion on the opportunities this quantum backbone opens for secure communications research across the region.