Quside, a Spanish quantum tech firm, has entered a Technology Alliance Partnership Agreement with Juniper Networks, an American multinational corporation, to jointly investigate the application of quantum random number generation to support the migration to new creative cryptographic methodologies.
Quside and Juniper will investigate how network providers might benefit from high-quality, high-performance, and observable quantum entropy sources like the one supplied by Quside. This approach is consistent with the ongoing move to quantum-resistant encryption systems with quantum-safe security features.
“As a secure networking innovator, Juniper continually assesses potential solutions to problems through the lens of improving and maintaining the best possible user experiences. Working with Quside to explore this emerging area is a great example of our ongoing quest to stay ahead of potential issues and threats for our customers.”
Domenico di Mola, Group Vice President Engineering, Cloud Software & Infrastructure and Packet-Optical Platforms, Juniper Networks.
Random numbers are generated by computers using pseudorandom number generators (PRNGs), quantum random number generators (QRNGs), or true random number generators (TRNGs). These devices have many real-world applications because they can generate data in situations where genuinely random events must be simulated.
Areas where random numbers are applied include:
- Games of chance and other types of gambling, including lotteries and horse racing bets.
- Scientific research where researchers need to generate large sets of data that are statistically representative of actual population data but cannot be collected directly from a real population due to limitations on time or resources.
- Security purposes like creating non-reusable passwords or generating encryption keys.
Specialized hardware, in particular, is necessary to provide the unpredictability required in security products and applications. In this context, it is critical to guarantee that the hardware used to generate these random numbers generates enough unexpected digits and that it is periodically inspected for entropy quality. Hence, not all RNGs are appropriate for cybersecurity use.
Quside’s QRNGs provide advantages such as ultrafast speed, easy interfaces for QKD systems, and IP cores to deliver various distribution functionalities.