Summary
Portugal, being one of the member states supporting the EuroQCI inniciative, is grouping in PTQCI its national key
stakeholders (implementing entity National Security Authority, telecom service providers,
industry, and academia) towards the early deployment of an advanced quantum network supporting
national quantum communication initiatives and their integration with existing communication
networks, in what will be the Portuguese (PT) initial segment (land and space) of EuroQCI, plus its
connection with Spain. PTQCI is supported by PT Armed Forces, Spanish EuroQCI, PTSPACE, and Austrian
partners. PTQCI is part of a roadmap for deploying national secure communication infrastructures
and technology provision, and builds on previous milestones achieved, and currently in
implementation by the core team on the past few years: advanced theoretical and practical
experiments with quantum key distribution (QKD) and cryptographic protocols leading to
successful demonstration of a quantum secure link between two PT military sites using
exclusively national technology (QSCRIPT, 2021); PT leadership of a major project under EDIDP
and supported by MoD and industry from Spain, Italy and Austria aiming at integrating and
combining Software Defined Networks (SDN) and QKD technologies on top of legacy optical networks
to build a highly secure, scalable and resilient network control architecture for advanced
operational services and develop national cipher machines (DISCRETION 2021); the implementation
of NATO Cyber Academy Hub in Lisbon to which the activities of DISCRETION are connected, and the
participation of Portugal in the Space component of EuroQCI through PTSPACE. PTQCI will follow and
build on DISCRETION, deploying a resilient network into the existing fiber optics
infrastructures in Portugal connecting different public bodies in Lisbon metropolitan area, as
well as a testbed network involving academic and private stakeholders, it will prepare the
expansion plan of the network to farther locations in Portugal (mainland and islands), including
the assessment of the ground to space segment infrastructures. Furthermore, it will be designed
from the start with a strong engagement with Spanish EuroQCI counterparts, building on joint
knowledge to achieve full EuroQCI interoperability at the Iberian scale.
