India's First 5.56 km Free-Space Quantum Key Distribution Link Demonstrated

India, Oct. 3 -- The Government of India has issued a release:

QNu Labs, in collaboration with Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geo-informatics (BISAG-N) and IIT Gandhinagar, has successfully demonstrated India's first free-space Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) link at a scale of 5.56 km.

The field trial, conducted on the night of September 27-28, established a secure quantum communication channel between BISAG-N and IIT Gandhinagar. Using QNu Labs' Pointing, Acquisition and Tracking system, the trial achieved a stable Quantum Bit Error Rate below 5% and generated secure keys at a rate of 230-260 bps. These keys were integrated with BISAG-N's post-quantum cryptography enabled Vedic Kavach platform, enabling succ...