Aliro Technologies, zerothird, and Cisco have completed a joint deployment demonstrating operational quantum key distribution on enterprise routing hardware. The project took place at the Cisco Photonics Center in Vimercate, Italy, and focused on real-time orchestration and automated security controls for a live network.
The demonstration combined Aliro Orchestrator software with zerothird’s automated key-generation hardware. This setup runs directly on production-grade routing equipment, moving quantum key distribution away from isolated research-grade assemblies that require manual tuning. The configuration utilizes the BBM92 protocol to generate secure keys without transmitting sensitive parameters.
Aliro’s control layer ingests real-time telemetry from zerothird’s end nodes rather than relying on static security assumptions. The system continuously monitors link integrity by tracking eavesdropper detection, quantum bit error rates, polarization drift, and photon detection statistics. If operational metrics degrade or exceed configured thresholds, the Orchestrator triggers automated self-healing workflows. These automated responses include on-the-fly recalibration, traffic rerouting, or secure link termination.
To integrate with existing infrastructure, the generated quantum keys are fed directly into Cisco 8000 Series routers via the Cisco SKIP interface. This connection allows the routers to establish live, quantum-safe MACsec encrypted sessions. By delivering finished keys to commercially available, rack-mounted hardware, the partners showed that entanglement-based quantum key distribution networks can interface with standard enterprise datacenters without custom application refactoring.
The deployment validates a full-stack roadmap for long-term security transitions. zerothird’s hardware platform manages the localized physical layer, handling sifting, polarization tracking, and error correction. Aliro’s software manages the operational control plane. By embedding these functions into existing Cisco network routing protocols, the partners demonstrated that quantum-safe security can be scaled and monitored as a standard IT service.