Cisco Unveils Software Prototypes for Quantum Networks
Cisco has introduced two research prototypes designed to coordinate quantum networks, enabling applications to utilize connected quantum devices without manual configuration. The company’s Quantum Network Controller and an updated Network-Aware Quantum Compiler divide responsibilities between managing hardware and planning program execution across separate processors, according to a Cisco blog post by Vijoy Pandey, senior vice president of Outshift by Cisco. Both remain prototypes, indicating a design for operating larger quantum networks rather than immediate commercial readiness for a large network of connected processors.
What Cisco Built
The controller manages the hardware layer by scheduling connections, monitoring link quality, and determining when and which applications receive entanglement. Concurrently, the compiler operates on the application side, dividing quantum programs among processors and translating these decisions into resource requests that the controller can act upon.
Cisco highlighted a February 2026 deployment as proof that the software can coordinate equipment from multiple vendors outside a lab setting. The disclosed figures and partners are:
- Multi-node entanglement distribution and swapping across 17.6 kilometers (about 11 miles) of deployed commercial telecom fiber in New York City.
- Greater than 99% polarization fidelity at room temperature, according to Cisco.
- Named hardware vendors Qunnect of Brooklyn and Swabian Instruments of Germany.
- Equipment included sources, switches, and time taggers for recording detection events.
Entanglement swapping is a technique for extending entanglement across separate links, allowing Cisco to achieve connectivity beyond a single point-to-point connection.
Scope of Coordination
This development focuses on network orchestration, not on a functional fleet of quantum computers collectively solving problems. The controller sits above Cisco’s Universal Quantum Switch, a separate prototype from earlier in the year, and dictates which routes are established. Cisco refers to the proposed service model as Entanglement-as-a-Service, drawing a parallel to how applications request resources while the network handles scheduling.
The deployment figures describe entanglement distribution over fiber, indicating that the results are currently at the trial stage, not production. Cisco also plans to introduce security and coordination tools, Quantum Alert and Quantum Sync, which would request entanglement through the same interface, with sensing applications to follow.
Cisco has previously committed to this field, including a November 2025 plan with IBM to build a network of fault-tolerant quantum computers. The primary open question remains whether this control layer can scale beyond a few nodes while meeting the precise timing demands of quantum operations.
For more information on quantum networking and its associated security tools, continue reading QNews.