Hybrid QKD-PQC Network Emulation through Automated and Scalable Cloud-Native Orchestration
Quditto adds cloud-native orchestration to emulate hybrid QKD and post-quantum networks at scale.
The paper extends Quditto, an open-source Quantum Key Distribution emulation platform, to hybrid QKD and post-quantum cryptography networks. Additions include a cloud-native orchestrator, a provisioning workflow for large emulations, native post-quantum nodes, and persistent access-controlled key storage. Experiments report sublinear orchestration-time scaling with network size and successful end-to-end hybrid key establishment on a representative spine-leaf deployment.
- Quditto emulates QKD networks without dedicated quantum hardware.
- A cloud-native orchestrator automates deployment across cloud and multi-cluster environments.
- Native post-quantum nodes support unified hybrid QKD-PQC emulation.
- A key-management module stores cryptographic material with access control.
- A spine-leaf test completed end-to-end hybrid key establishment.
Full article193 words · extracted from arxiv.org · click to collapse
The ongoing transition toward quantum-safe networking has motivated the development of hybrid network architectures integrating Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) and Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC). However, the experimental evaluation of hybrid QKD-PQC network architectures remains constrained by the high cost and limited accessibility of quantum hardware, as well as by the limited support for hybrid QKD-PQC networks in existing emulation platforms. Quditto is an open-source emulation platform originally designed for QKD networks that enables cost-effective and reproducible experimentation without requiring dedicated physical quantum infrastructure. Building on this foundation, this work presents Quditto as a hybrid QKD-PQC network emulation platform featuring automated and scalable cloud-native orchestration. The proposed platform introduces four principal contributions: a cloud-native orchestrator enabling fully automated infrastructure deployment across cloud and multi-cluster environments; an optimized provisioning workflow enabling large-scale quantum-safe network emulation; native integration of post-quantum nodes enabling unified emulation of hybrid QKD-PQC networks; and a secure key management module providing persistent and access-controlled storage of cryptographic material. Experimental validation demonstrates sublinear orchestration-time scaling with network size and successful end-to-end hybrid QKD-PQC key establishment on a representative spine-leaf deployment, thereby enabling the systematic evaluation of quantum-safe networking mechanisms in large-scale heterogeneous network environments.
Text extracted automatically; images, tables and formatting may be missing. Original: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.35358