India, Oct. 3 -- QNu Labs, in collaboration with the Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Applications and Geo-informatics (BISAG-N) and IIT Gandhinagar, has demonstrated a 5.56 km free-space Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) link, marking a step towards extending quantum-secure communications beyond fibre networks.

The field trial, conducted during the night of 27-28 September between BISAG-N and IIT Gandhinagar, maintained a Quantum Bit Error Rate (QBER) below 5% and generated secure encryption keys at 230-260 bits per second (bps), according to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).

The government has described the trial as India's first 5.56 km free-space QKD link.

Unlike fibre-based QKD, which transmit...