The Evolution of Interconnects in the Brave New Quantum World!

This talk will describe a brand new, operational, commercial quantum network in London, built by BT and Toshiba. We will look at the practical issues in building such a network, taking into account the need for co-existence of quantum and regular classical data. We will consider the implications of moving from a point-to-point system to a quantum network, with multiple nodes. Finally we will look ahead to the increased demands on components as we evolve towards a Quantum Internet.

Andrew joined BT in 1985 after a BA in Physics from Oxford University. He has worked on a wide range of optical network systems and technologies, including long haul subsea and terrestrial DWDM networks. He currently heads BT’s optical core and access research including quantum communications. He has published over 100 research papers. He was General Chair for the Optical Fiber Communications Conference (OFC) 2017 in Los Angeles. He is Visiting Professor at Essex University, a Senior Member of the IEEE and Chartered Engineer and is Associate Editor of the Journal of Lightwave Technology. He won the prestigious BT Martlesham Medal in 2018. He is currently project manager for the EU Metro-Haul Project and the UK-funded AIRQKD projects.