Cisco has announced its Universal Quantum Switch, a fundamental milestone that responds to one of the main challenges in building quantum networks. As an operational research prototype, it is the latest advancement in Cisco’s quantum networking program, based on years of research, real-world demonstrations, and a growing ecosystem of strategic collaborations.
Quantum computers encode information in different ways, and until now, no switch could preserve quantum information in the process. Cisco’s Universal Quantum Switch is designed to overcome this challenge for the first time, routing quantum information and preserving it – without the need to vary the temperature – and over existing telecommunications fiber optics, with a Cisco patented conversion engine that translates between coding modes at the input and output.
“Reaching this milestone marks a pivotal moment for our quantum program and is a testament to the transformative potential of quantum networks,” said Vijoy Pandey, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Outshift, Cisco’s Emerging Technologies and Incubation Group. “We have long recognized that connecting quantum systems is the key to achieving true scalability, and now we have taken a fundamental step to turn that vision into reality. While this is a significant achievement, it is just the beginning of a long but impactful journey.”
Building the network layer for the quantum era
Current quantum computers are powerful but limited. They operate with hundreds of qubits, while real-world applications in healthcare, financial services and aerospace will require millions to achieve unprecedented speeds and technological advances. Cisco believes that networking and connectivity are critical to bridging that gap. The quantum future will not be built by a single company or a single technology, it will be built by connecting all of them in an ecosystem.
Imagine connecting billions of people and tens of billions of devices with direct cables. It would be impossible to manage. The Internet was possible because classic switches could connect all those endpoints through a shared, scalable network.
Cisco’s Universal Quantum Switch does the same for quantum technology. When two quantum computers need to share information, the switch accepts the signal in whatever mode it arrives, translates it into a common language for routing, and delivers it in the format needed by the receiving system, without losing any quantum information along the way.
This is made possible by a proprietary Cisco conversion engine at the heart of the quantum switch. The output mode can match the input mode or be completely different, allowing you to connect and translate between quantum systems that were never designed to communicate with each other, a fundamental capability for building quantum networks that work between different providers and technologies.
The Quantum Switch is designed to support all major quantum coding modalities used to transport information:
- Polarization (the orientation of light waves).
- Time interval (the timing of light pulses).
- Frequency range (the color or frequency of light).
- Trajectory (the physical or spatial trajectory).
To date, the quantum switch has been experimentally validated with bias coding. Time slot and frequency slot support is built into the design and represents the next step in Cisco’s ongoing validation process.
Proof of concept and results
Cisco researchers tested the Universal Quantum Switch using Cisco’s own entanglement source and single photon detectors. In these experiments, the switch demonstrated that quantum information can be routed and converted between systems quickly, accurately, and efficiently, without destroying it in the process.
Key findings include:
- Preservation of quantum information during conversion: less than 4% degradation in quantum state fidelity and entanglement, thus maintaining the coherence that quantum networks require to function.
- Switching at the speed required by quantum networks: electro-optical switching in fractions of a nanosecond, reconfiguring connections in just 1 nanosecond.
- Energy efficiency: consumes less than 1 milliwatt of power.
Powering the quantum network of the future
Quantum networks are in an incipient phase. There is no consolidated infrastructure connecting quantum systems, and most can only communicate with other systems that encode information in the same way as they do. Cisco’s Universal Quantum Switch takes a whole new approach:
- Unique: Current switch technology is limited to a single type of coding. The Cisco Universal Quantum Switch is designed to support all major modes, with a built-in conversion capability that is patented by Cisco and not available in any other product on the market today.
- Room temperature operation: Unlike many quantum hardware components that require cryogenic cooling, the Cisco Universal Quantum Switch operates at room temperature. This eliminates the need for specialized cooling infrastructure, reducing both implementation complexity and costs.
- Operates with existing infrastructure: operates on standard telecommunications frequencies through the same fiber that currently carries Internet traffic, without the need for specialized equipment.
- Connect systems that previously couldn’t communicate: Organizations are no longer limited to a single vendor ecosystem. It enables interoperability between quantum devices from different manufacturers, protecting existing investments and facilitating the creation of quantum environments.
- Designed for the entire technology stack: Designed as part of Cisco’s ever-evolving end-to-end architecture for a distributed quantum network, spanning the hardware, software, and application layers.
Cisco’s vision of the future
For more than four decades, Cisco has created infrastructure that connects the world. Its new Universal Quantum Switch represents the latest milestone in that evolution, reflecting Cisco’s belief that the path to practical quantum computing will be built through a distributed network of interconnected quantum devices in a matter of years, not decades.
When two quantum computers share information, the switch accepts the signal, translates it into a common language, and delivers it in the receiver format.
The switch is part of a broader offering for quantum networks, including Cisco’s quantum networking entanglement chip—which generates the entangled photons that quantum networks rely on to transmit information—and Cisco’s industry-first, network-sensitive Quantum Compiler, which coordinates how quantum algorithms are distributed and executed across multiple quantum processors. All three were developed from scratch at Cisco’s specialized quantum labs in Santa Monica.
Together, along with applications like Quantum Sync and Quantum Alert, these innovations contribute to Cisco’s vision of a complete quantum network, from the hardware that generates and routes quantum information, to the software that manages it, to the applications that put it into practice. Cisco is also advancing this vision through strategic collaborations with IBM, Qunnect, Atom Computing and other companies.
