First Quantum Key Distribution over Live Network in US
Quantum Foundry Powers First Cross-State Quantum Key Distribution Over Live Commercial Fiber Network in the U.S.
Moving Quantum-Secure Communications from the Lab to the Real World
On December 9, 2025, quantum networking crossed a historic threshold. Quantum Corridor, in collaboration with Toshiba International Corporation and partners, announced the first successful demonstration of quantum key distribution (QKD) across state lines over a live commercial metropolitan fiber network—a breakthrough that marks a critical step toward building a commercially scalable, quantum-safe internet for the United States.
Quantum Foundry is proud to have served as the exclusive engineering partner for this landmark proof-of-concept, delivering the project management, installation, and engineering support that helped transform this vision into reality.
A First for the U.S.
This demonstration represents a watershed moment: the first QKD implementation on any commercial carrier network in the United States. The team successfully transmitted quantum-secured communications over commercial fiber infrastructure spanning 21.8 kilometers from Chicago’s ORD10 Data Center (350 Cermak) to the Digital Crossroad Data Center in Hammond, Indiana—connecting two Tier III data centers across state lines.
As Ryan Lafler, President & CTO of Quantum Corridor, stated in the official announcement: “This is a historic step toward realizing a quantum-secure communications fabric for America’s digital economy, defense, life science industry and beyond. Working with Toshiba and our regional partners, we’ve shown that quantum-safe networking can be deployed today—on existing infrastructure—to protect the data that underpins our most critical systems.”
From Lab to Real World
What sets this demonstration apart is its commercial authenticity. This wasn’t a controlled laboratory experiment—it was quantum physics operating over production fiber infrastructure, through the dense urban environment of metropolitan Chicago, routed beneath roadways, railways, and bridges.
Terry Cronin, Vice President of Business Development at Toshiba International Corporation, captured the significance: “This collaboration marks a major milestone for quantum-secure communications, moving use cases out of the lab and into the real world on existing fiber. This opens the door to faster innovation, broader adoption, and stronger collaboration across the quantum ecosystem, accelerating customer adoption of quantum-secure networks.”
The experiment validated the use of Toshiba’s ETSI-compliant multiplexed QKD technology integrated with Ciena’s Waveserver 5 800G coherent encryption modules. The results exceeded all expectations:
Secure key rates averaging 1,500 kbps—far surpassing the typical 300 kbps baseline for comparable links
100% line-rate throughput with zero packet loss over 48 hours of continuous encrypted traffic
Fresh QKD-generated AES-256 keys every 90 seconds, demonstrating unprecedented cryptographic agility
FIPS 140-3 Level 2 certified encryption using AES-256-GCM
Quantum link stability for over one week despite real-world environmental disturbances
Our Role: Engineering the Quantum Future
Quantum Foundry’s exclusive partnership with Quantum Corridor placed our team at the heart of this demonstration. Through comprehensive project management, hands-on installation support, and deep engineering expertise, we helped navigate the complexities of deploying cutting-edge quantum technology in a production environment.
Our responsibilities spanned the full project lifecycle:
Project Management: Coordinating a sophisticated multi-vendor, multi-state deployment involving Toshiba’s QKD systems, Ciena’s high-speed encryption platforms, and Quantum Corridor’s commercial fiber infrastructure required meticulous planning and flawless execution across organizational boundaries.
Installation Support: Our engineers worked on-site at both Tier III data center locations, ensuring proper equipment installation, fiber characterization (measuring 7.25dB and 7.57dB loss on the classical and quantum fiber pairs respectively), and system integration within secured, locked equipment cabinets.
Engineering Expertise: From configuring the ETSI 014 compliant key exchange interfaces to integrating authentication certificates through Quantum Corridor’s enterprise Certificate Authority infrastructure, our team ensured that every component worked together seamlessly. Notably, this deployment used only generally available (GA) hardware and software with customer-facing interfaces—no prototype equipment, no engineering workarounds, no backdoor access.
The Power of Regional Collaboration
This achievement grew from the Chicago Quantum Exchange (CQE) partnership program, which accelerates quantum innovation by connecting organizations across the ecosystem. The QKD equipment was graciously loaned to Quantum Corridor by Toshiba and the University of Chicago, with a UChicago graduate student providing valuable input on the QKD system configuration.
Dr. Aashish Clerk, Director of the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago, emphasized this collaborative spirit: “The partnerships that fueled this work highlight the essential role of collaboration across borders and between organizations in accelerating quantum technology development.”
Quantum Corridor itself is a member of the Bloch Tech Hub—a coalition of industry, academic, government, and nonprofit stakeholders led by Chicago Quantum Exchange, one of 31 U.S. Regional and Innovation Technology Hubs designated for quantum technologies. When complete, the Quantum Corridor network will stretch 263 miles, becoming the nation’s largest quantum computing superhighway.
Why This Matters Now
The threat from quantum computing to current cryptographic systems is not hypothetical—it’s an approaching reality. Today’s encrypted data, if harvested now, could be decrypted by future quantum computers using a strategy known as “harvest now, decrypt later.” This makes quantum-safe communication infrastructure an urgent priority for organizations handling sensitive data in finance, healthcare, defense, and government.
Dr. Michael Manfra, Director of the Purdue University Quantum Science and Engineering Institute, put it plainly: “It is extremely exciting to witness QKD deployed and functioning on a fully commercial network under real world conditions. This achievement marks a significant transition towards commercially viable secure quantum key distribution across state boundaries in a major metropolitan center. This result from Quantum Corridor and Toshiba bodes well for further commercial expansion in the Midwest Quantum heartland.”
Looking Ahead
This proof-of-concept validates that QKD can be deployed over commercial fiber with production-grade encryption systems, paving the way for future quantum-resilient critical infrastructure and enterprise services. The success opens the door for testing additional building blocks for quantum communication, including quantum memories, timing distribution, and quantum repeaters.
For Quantum Foundry, this project exemplifies our mission: taking emerging quantum technologies from the laboratory to the real world, solving the engineering challenges that stand between scientific possibility and commercial deployment. We’re honored to have played a central role in this historic achievement, and we look forward to continuing our work at the frontier of quantum-secure networking.
Quantum Foundry is the exclusive engineering partner of Quantum Corridor, providing project management, installation, and engineering support for quantum communication infrastructure deployments. To learn more about our capabilities in quantum-safe networking, contact our team today.