Quantum Networking: A Ten-year Forecast and Opportunity Analysis

The primary goal of this report is to present detailed ten-year forecasts for quantum networking opportunities and deployments over the coming decade. As far as is possible we present these numbers in value and volume terms.

Today there increasing talk about the Quantum Internet. This network will have the same geographical breadth of coverage as today’s Internet but where the Internet carries bits, the Quantum Internet will carry qubits, represented by quantum states. The Quantum Internet will provide a powerful platform for communications among quantum computers and other quantum devices. It will also further enable a quantum version of the Internet-of-Things. Finally, quantum networks can be the most secure networks ever built - completely invulnerable if constructed properly.

Already there are sophisticated roadmaps showing how the Quantum Internet will come to be. At the present time, however, quantum networking in the real world consists of three research programs and commercialization efforts: Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) adds unbreakable coding of key distribution to public-key encryption. Cloud/network access to quantum computers is core to the business strategies of leading quantum computer companies. Quantum sensor networks promise enhanced navigation and positioning; more sensitive medical imaging modalities, etc. This report provides power ten-year forecasts of all three of these sectors.

In this report, we provide a detailed quantitative analysis of where the emerging opportunities can be found today and how they will emerge in the future:

With regard to the scope of the report, the focus is, of course, on quantum networking opportunities of all kinds. We look especially, however, on three areas: quantum key distribution (QKD,) quantum computer networking/quantum clouds, and quantum sensor networks. We also include in our forecasts breakouts by all the end-user segments of this market including military and intelligence, law enforcement, banking and financial services, and general business applications, as well as niche applications. There are also breakouts by hardware, software and services as appropriate.

In addition, there is also some discussion of the latest research into quantum networking, including the critical work on quantum repeaters. Quantum repeaters allow entanglement between quantum devices over long distances. Most experts predict repeaters will start to prototype in real-world applications in about five years, but this is far from certain.

The methodology employed to construct this report involves both primary and secondary research. The primary research consisted of interviews conducted both on the phone but also in person (especially at the publisher’s own conferences) and to some extent via e-mail. The secondary research consists of reviews of both technical and business articles related to all quantum networking areas. The forecasting methodology is explained in more detail later in this report. However, we note here that we tie all of our forecasts back to the underlying end-user markets for quantum networks and this is an important part of how we derive our numbers.

Much of this report has been extracted from other reports compiled by the publisher and some of the numbers included here come from these reports. This report was also partially updated in September 2020 to reflect current realities.

However, a full update of the report will not be carried out until January 2021. The forecasts in this report have not been updated and reflect the publisher’s perspective as of late 2019.

This report will be essential reading for equipment companies, service providers, telephone companies, data center managers, cybersecurity firms, IT companies and investors of various kinds.