• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Monday, September 29, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Chemistry

Photons trained for optical fibre obstacle course will deliver stronger cyber security

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
April 4, 2019
in Chemistry
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
IMAGE
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

Researchers from the NUS-Singtel Cyber Security Research & Development Laboratory in Singapore demonstrate a way to improve quantum key distribution over fibre networks

IMAGE

Credit: National University of Singapore

Beneath many cities are complex networks of optical fibres that carry data, encoded in pulses of light, to offices and homes. Researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Singtel, Asia’s leading communications technology group, have demonstrated a technique that will help pairs of light particles smoothly navigate these networks, a breakthrough that will enable stronger cyber security. The demonstration was performed over 10km of Singtel’s fibre network. This project, conducted in Singapore, is driven by the NUS-Singtel Cyber Security Research & Development Laboratory, a public-private partnership supported by the National Research Foundation, Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore. It relies on the expertise from the Centre for Quantum Technologies (CQT) at NUS.

This new approach supports the deployment of a technology known as quantum key distribution (QKD). Transmitted over fibre networks, it uses signals sent in particles of light known as photons. Detection of individual photons creates encryption keys for secure communication. Data encrypted with such keys is resistant to all computational hacks.

QKD trials are being conducted worldwide as governments and companies recognise the need to strengthen their cyber security. The QKD trials carried out by the NUS-Singtel team use pairs of photons that are connected by the quantum property of entanglement. Most QKD schemes require that the sender and receiver of a secret message exchange photons directly or trust the source of their keys. With this alternative approach, it is possible to check the security of a key provided by a third party supplier.

It works like this: the supplier would create a pair of photons, then split them up, sending one each to the two parties that want to communicate securely. The entanglement means that when the parties measure their photons, they get matching results, either a 0 or 1. Doing this for many photons leaves each party with identical patterns of 0s and 1s, giving them a key to lock and unlock a message.

Typically, each photon encounters a different obstacle course of spliced fibre segments and junction boxes. On their paths, the photons also suffer dispersion, where they effectively spread out. This affects the operators’ ability to track the photons.

The new trick, published on 4 April in the scientific journal Applied Physics Letters, keeps the entangled photons in sync as they travel different paths through the network. This is important because they are identified by the gap between their arrival times at the detector. “Timing information is what allows us to link pairs of detection events together. Preserving this correlation will help us to create encryption keys faster,” says James Grieve, a researcher on the team.

The technique works by carefully designing the photon source to create pairs of light particles with colours either side of a known feature of optical fibre called the ‘zero-dispersion wavelength’. Normally, in optical fibres bluer light would arrive faster than redder light, spreading out the photons’ arrival times. Working around the zero-dispersion point makes it possible to match the speeds through the photons’ time-energy entanglement. Then the timing is preserved.

Associate Professor Alexander Ling, a Principal Investigator at CQT, led this work for the NUS-Singtel lab. He said, “Before these results, it was not known if the multi-segment nature of deployed fibre would enable high precision dispersion cancellation, because the segments don’t generally have identical zero dispersion wavelengths.”

In showing it can work, the team boosts expectations for QKD over commercial fibre. The entangled photons could find other applications, too. For example, the photons in each pair are created within femtoseconds of each other. Their coordinated arrival times might synchronise clocks for time-critical operations such as financial trading.

###

Reference:
Characterizing nonlocal dispersion compensation in deployed telecommunications fiber,

Applied Physics Letters DOI: 10.1063/1.5088830 (2019)

https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.5088830

Preprint available at: https://arxiv.org/abs/1901.02204

Media contact:

Alexander Ling

Principal Investigator, Centre for Quantum Technologies &

Associate Professor, National University of Singapore

[email protected]

+65 6516 2985

Media Contact
Jenny Hogan
[email protected]

Related Journal Article

http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.5088830

Tags: Chemistry/Physics/Materials SciencesInternetOpticsResearch/DevelopmentSystem Security/HackersTechnology/Engineering/Computer ScienceTelecommunications
Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

blank

Pulp Mill Waste Transformed into Eco-Friendly Solution for Eliminating Toxic Dyes

September 27, 2025

Fluorogenic Probes Unveil Ferroptosis Onset, Progression

September 26, 2025

Cutting-Edge Adaptive Optics Boost Gravitational-Wave Discoveries

September 26, 2025

Jingyuan Xu of KIT Honored with “For Women in Science” Sponsorship Award

September 26, 2025
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • New Study Reveals the Science Behind Exercise and Weight Loss

    New Study Reveals the Science Behind Exercise and Weight Loss

    85 shares
    Share 34 Tweet 21
  • Physicists Develop Visible Time Crystal for the First Time

    73 shares
    Share 29 Tweet 18
  • Scientists Discover and Synthesize Active Compound in Magic Mushrooms Again

    56 shares
    Share 22 Tweet 14
  • How Donor Human Milk Storage Impacts Gut Health in Preemies

    55 shares
    Share 22 Tweet 14

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Cochrane Review Confirms Safety and Effectiveness of RSV Vaccines

Cochrane Review Confirms RSV Vaccines Are Safe and Effective

Addressing Frailty and Polypharmacy in Elderly Home Care

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 63 other subscribers
  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.