Quantum communications technology seeks to improve data security, which is increasingly compromised in the modern world.
The world is generating higher and higher volumes of data, with increasing concerns about its sensitivity, writes Dr Tess Skyrme, senior technology analyst at IDTechEx.
Meanwhile, bad actors are committing more advanced cybercrimes – keen to exploit the value of virtually shared trade secrets, financial data, health records, and more.
Moreover, the scaling up of quantum computing threatens to undermine existing cryptography methods entirely – leaving a gap in the market for new ‘quantum-ready’ technology solutions able to meet the next generation of encryption needs.
The new IDTechEx quantum communication market report, “Quantum Communication Market 2024-2034: Technology, Trends, Players, Forecasts”, simplifies this complex technology into accessible to read terms and separates the hype from the reality as to its disruptive potential.
The first wave of technology to disrupt the communications market is post quantum cryptography. This mathematical approach to increasing security will require mass software system upgrades, but not necessarily dedicated hardware.
Pressure is growing to raise awareness to all businesses about the need for crypto-agility, and the market for dedicated quantum ready platforms for network managers is already growing.
However, mathematical approaches are constantly under pressure to evolve against new threats – and a software only solution is already insufficient for the most highly sensitive data transfers.
Hardware solutions such as quantum key distribution (QKD) are thought to be among the few which can probably remain robust to any eavesdropping.
This specialised optical technology has been developed for installation within optical fiber networks, leveraging the phenomena of entanglement and no-cloning in a revolutionary new approach to telecommunications.
“Quantum Communication Market 2024-2034: Technology, Trends, Players, Forecasts” contextualises QKD within the larger cryptography industry shifts, and identifies the key technology approaches and leading companies within the quantum communication market. This includes a specific focus on QKD integration into quantum networks – with global case-studies and updates from China, Europe, the US, UK and Japan.
A key component of QKD is a better random number generator for more secure key generation. Yet these quantum random number generations (QRNGs) have applications beyond just state-of-the-art quantum networks.
QRNGs have already been incorporated into some smartphones and have been adopted by the gambling and gaming industry. This report analyses the competitive landscape of the QRNG market and appraises the future outlook for this technology at both the PCIe and chip-scale.