Vienna, Austria – July 2026 – zerothird’s end-to-end quantum-secure key generation system is nowoperating at Cisco Photonics in Vimercate, Italy, as part of a live demonstration with Aliro Technologiesand Cisco.
The demonstration marks the first operational test of a fully integrated, flied-ready eQKD network at aCisco facility in Europe – running zerothird's entanglement-based hardware and key generation stackalongside Aliro's quantum network orchestration software and Cisco's routing infrastructure.
The Demonstration
The zerothird system provides the complete entanglement-based key generation layer for thedemonstration. This includes the BBM92 end nodes, the entanglement-distribution link, and the full on-device key generation stack – covering sifting, polarization alignment and tracking, clocksynchronization, error correction, and privacy amplification. The system delivers finished, provablysecure cryptographic keys, ready for use by the network layer.
“Achieving true quantum-safe security requires a comprehensive, full -stack approach that integratesboth hardware and software. By leveraging Aliro Orchestrator to manage the interaction between third -party QKD hardware and our Cisco 8000 series routers via the SKIP protocol, we are demonstratingseamless, fi eld -ready interoperability.” -
Maurizio Gazzola, Sr. Director Optical Architecture at Cisco
Keys generated by zerothird can be delivered to Cisco 8000 Series routers via the Cisco SKIP interface,enabling live quantum-secure MACsec encrypted sessions between routers. Aliro Orchestrator providesthe network management and security operations layer for the demonstration, monitoring telemetryproduced by the zerothird system, including quantum bit error rate (QBER), key generation rates, photondetection statistics, polarization drift, and link health. When metrics cross defined thresholds, AliroOrchestrator raises security and operational alerts and can trigger automated remediation workflows,including recalibration, traffic rerouting, or safe link shutdown, with all events logged for auditability.
"Quantum networking will only scale if systems from di ff erent vendors work together. zerothird providesthe end - to-end, entanglement -based quantum-secure key generation system, and here it operatesalongside Aliro Orchestrator and Cisco's routing infrastructure in a fi eld -ready environment . That's theinteroperability the market needs to see."
Felix Tiefenbacher, CEO, zerothird
The system runs on commercially available, rack-mountable hardware and is managed throughenterprise-grade software. No research-grade environment. No trusted nodes. No keys in transit.
Why This Matters
Quantum key distribution based on entanglement does not transmit keys. It generates them locally fromentangled photon pairs. Any interception attempt collapses the quantum state and is immediatelydetectable. This is a security guarantee rooted in physics, not in computational assumptions.
“Commercializing quantum networks isn't just about getting hardware to work in a controlledenvironment,” said Michael Cubeddu, Co- founder and CTO at Aliro . “It's about delivering solutions to runa quantum network as real infrastructure, to make its services as accessible as they are powerful, anddelivering that capability without requiring the operator to be a quantum physicist. This implementationof Aliro Orchestrator by our customer Cisco shows what entanglement -based quantum security lookslike in practice.”
The Cisco facility demonstration shows that this capability no longer needs to be confined to laboratoryconditions. It could operate in field ready infrastructure, integrated with commercial routing equipment,and with enterprise orchestration software. For organizations in critical infrastructure, finance, energy,and regulated industries evaluating the path to quantum-secure communications, this is a concreteoperational reference point.
