BBN Technologies has built what it describes as “the world’s first quantum cryptography network.” The DARPA Quantum Network, which links BBN’s campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts to Harvard University and soon Boston University, uses quantum cryptography to provide extremely high-levels of security for Internet traffic.
Quantum cryptography, invented by Charles Bennett and Giles Brassard in the 1980s, prepares and transmits single photons of light, through either fiber optic cable or the atmosphere, to distribute cryptographic keys that are used to encrypt and decrypt messages. BBN said this method of securing information is radically different from methods based on mathematical complexity, relying instead on fundamental physical laws. Because very small (quantum) particles are changed by any observation or measurement, eavesdropping on a quantum cryptography system is always detectable.
BBN is developing protocols to pave the way for robust quantum networks on a larger scale by providing “any to any” networking of quantum cryptography through a mesh of passive optical switches and cryptographic key relays.
“People think of quantum cryptography as a distant possibility,” said Chip Elliott, a Principal Scientist at BBN and leader of its quantum engineering team, “but the DARPA Quantum Network is up and running today underneath Cambridge. http://www.bbn.com
- In February 2004, two prominent venture capital firms acquired the legendary BBN development labs from Verizon. General Catalyst Partners, a private equity firm based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Accel Partners, a venture capital firm based in Palo Alto, California, said the deal would allow BBN to continue its legacy of innovation and technology leadership. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- BBN was founded in 1948 by MIT professors Richard Bolt and Leo Beranek, along with Robert Newman, with a vision of starting a small, acoustical consulting firm. The company is best know for its pioneering work with the ARPANET (the forerunner of today’s Internet) in 1969. It is also credited with the first implementation of packet switching (1969), the first router (1976), and the first network e-mail (1971), which established the @ sign as an icon for the digital age. BBN is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.