The European project QUDICE has started on January 1st of 2023.
Eleven partners from all over Europe have come together to carry out research, development and innovation of Quantum Key Distribution technology for quantum cryptography and to deploy this technology on a constellation of cubesats to enable quantum ultra-secure communications over the entire European region.
Abstract
The protection of sensitive information is of crucial importance in our society: the security of money transfer, commercial transactions, medical data, remote control of critical infrastructures (power grid, telecom etc.) are key assets for EU citizens.
Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) is a promising solution to protect digital communications, guaranteeing unconditional security based on the laws of quantum mechanics rather than on the computation capability of an adversary.
QKD requires a satellite network to allow the sharing of random keys between two legitimate users at the European scale. The main target of QUDICE is the development of the components and subsystems for quantum communication and optical systems for space-based QKD enabling the realization of a European network of satellites with quantum key distribution as the main service.
