This report analyzes business opportunities in the quantum networking market as it makes its transition from QKD testbeds to full-service repeater-based quantum internets. The report identifies quantum networking market opportunities in a number of areas including the following:
#1. Opportunities prior to the quantum internet: For now, quantum networks and QKD networks are taken as more or less the same. This report analyzes the potential for both QKD chips and next generation of QKD boxes; pre-quantum internet networking. We show how QKD will be integrated into boxes along with other kinds of/additional functionalities. Another part of this story that we discuss is the use of distributed quantum computers to scale up quantum computing to handle “industrial scale” problems, perhaps beyond what can be handled in the current NISQ era. This part of the report draws on research and analysis that IQT Research has been doing in the QKD area for six years.
#2. Quantum sensor networks: A new type of quantum network is covered in the report — quantum sensor networks. Until recently, quantum sensors were used in a limited way and were mostly non-networked research devices. In the recent past year, however, researchers and startups are finding ways to deploy sensors in networks. We are, for example, seeing networked quantum sensors used for distributed clocking systems, seismic monitoring and weather networks and interferometry used in space exploration. Quantum sensor networks are also of growing interest to the defense industry since they provide mechanisms for targeting that are theoretically secure against jamming. This part of our quantum networking report considers both classical networks of quantum sensors and future end-to-end quantum sensors networks.
#3. Current business potential from the quantum internet: There are already quantum networks integrated with the existing Internet that have been demonstrated in China, the U.S. and the Netherlands. We discuss in this report, how the speed of innovation in this area, in collaboration with commercial equipment vendors, suggests significant commercial opportunities in the near term. For example, we are now seeing quantum networks with prototype quantum repeaters in both the U.S. and Europe. In this report we chronicle how the quantum internet will be born and how revenues will be generated from early products and networks during its early years.
#4. Satellites vs. fiber in quantum networks: Until commercial repeaters become widely available, satellites will play an important role in long-haul quantum networks. There are already impressive examples of satellite quantum communications in Canada (QEYSSat) and China (Micius). This report discusses how quantum satellite networks can prepare the way for tomorrow’s long-haul quantum networks. The effectiveness of satellite quantum is illustrated by the fact that in China, 150 industrial users have already been connected to the Micius network in China, Also, satellites provide the opportunity to deploy novel value-added quantum services such as QKD-on-demand or entanglement on demand.
#5 The Geopolitics of quantum Networks: Coverage in this report comprises North America, the EU, non-EU Europe, China, Asia other than China, Australasia, and Russia. And as we discuss this report, policy and geopolitical issues are also creating new opportunities. Questions that we examine include whether the antipathy to QKD by the NSA and other intelligence services will hurt the QKD market as a whole and whether the war in the Ukraine, stimulate the quantum technology business as a whole. For example, recently the Defense Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) and Australian, U.K. and U.S. (AUKUS) agreements were announced to further strengthen quantum-related collaborations between western nations in response to both the Russian-Ukraine war and the growing threat of Chinese quantum related advances.
This report also discusses how major networking and electronics companies around the world are building product and marketing strategies for quantum networks. Some of the large commercial companies that we discuss include Airbus, AWS, BT, Cisco, Deutsche Telekom, Huawei, Juniper, Korea Telecom, LG, Mitsubishi, NEC, Nomura, NTT, Quantum Xchange, Raytheon, Thales, Toshiba, Verizon, and ID Quantique, to name just a few In addition, we examine the start-ups in the quantum networking space and their prospects for financing.
Finally, the report contains ten-year revenue forecasts of the quantum networking business, based on current and expected funding. The primary breakouts are quantum networked security/QKD, quantum repeater networks and quantum sensor networks. Some of the segments that are forecast beyond include QKD chips, repeater hardware and wireless networks of quantum sensors.
