AliroNet™ will enable configuration, management and control of newly announced EPB Quantum Network℠ powered by Qubitekk

BOSTON and CHATTANOOGA, February 28, 2023 /Business Wire/ -- Aliro Quantum, The Quantum Networking Company™, today announced that its AliroNet™ solution has been selected to provide the quantum network controller for the recently announced EPB Quantum Network℠ powered by Qubitekk. AliroNet™ will provide the user interface to EPB Quantum.

Network customers enabling end-users to define, validate, schedule, run and control EPB Quantum Network℠ services. All user data and telemetry will be securely gathered and stored to safeguard intellectual property.

“EPB Quantum Network will support the commercialization of quantum industry innovations and position Chattanooga for new economic, employment and technological developments,” said David Wade, EPB president and CEO. “AliroNet™ will provide an essential component of the network by enabling the seamless and reliable configuration, management and control to advance the acceleration of commercial quantum technologies.”

AliroNet™ will also provide the network operator’s interface, which will allow EPB operators to manage and monitor the physical quantum network infrastructure. EPB operators will be able to define and manage quantum services offered to EPB Quantum Network customers and end-users.

"Quantum networks require sophisticated control, management, and orchestration software to operate seamlessly and at optimum capacity,” said Jim Ricotta, CEO and Chairman of Aliro Quantum. "AliroNet will provide comprehensive quantum network control software for the end-to-end system."

On the backend, AliroNet™ will be responsible for managing and scheduling access to the pooled quantum hardware resources, routing traffic across the quantum network, and executing the end-user service workflows.

“Quantum product developers must be able to depend on reliable, predictable technology to ensure their developments will succeed when they go to market,” said Dr. Duncan Earl, Qubitekk co-founder, president and CTO. “AliroNet software along with Qubitekk hardware and embedded software technology will provide a consistent, dependable solution to help EPB Quantum Network clients integrate to the network.”

“EPB is a national leader in deploying cutting edge fiber optic technology and with Qubitekk continues to operate on the frontier of possibilities,” said Dr. Prineha Narang, founder and CTO with Aliro. "EPB will take advantage of AliroNet, a comprehensive quantum network software solution, for orchestration and control to simplify the deployment, configuration and management of EPB Quantum Network for potential use in secure communications implementations, quantum computing connectivity and distributed quantum sensing."

EPB Quantum Network℠ is a quantum-as-a-service offering that will provide quantum technologists with fiber optic infrastructure that integrates the latest foundational quantum equipment and software to accelerate their process for bringing quantum technologies and applications to market.

Aliro Quantum services also include helping with the analysis, selection and acquisition of third-party quantum networking hardware components used to build quantum memories, repeaters, routers, photon sources, photon detectors and other optical components. AliroNet use cases include quantum secure communications (QSC) between sites, campuses, branch offices, data centers and clouds. AliroNet also operates in conjunction with traditional classical networks and existing fiber installations meaning it does not require a forklift upgrade to implement an entanglement-based quantum network.

About Aliro

Aliro Quantum, The Quantum Networking Company™, offers AliroNet™ to emulate, pilot and deploy entanglement-based quantum networks that are capable of running a wide variety of applications from secure communications to clustered quantum computing and distributed quantum sensing. Aliro, spun out of NarangLab at Harvard University, includes world-class experts in quantum and classical networking and is leading the charge in quantum network development by offering the foundational technologies needed for organizations around the world to build scalable and powerful distributed quantum systems. AliroNet™ users include utility companies, telecommunications providers, public sector organizations, enterprises and researchers who are simulating, designing, piloting orchestrating and building the world’s first entanglement-based quantum networks.

Aliro also works with industry and academic partners through the Quantum Economic Development Consortium (QED-C), the NSF Center for Quantum Networks (CQN) and the NSF Quantum Leap Challenge Institute Hybrid Quantum Architectures and Networks (HQAN). Additionally, Aliro is involved in several quantum networking standards groups at IEEE and QED-C. To learn more, visit www.aliroquantum.com.

About EPB

EPB delivers advanced smart city infrastructure and world-class energy and connectivity solutions, including the most resilient smart grid power distribution system in the United States and the fastest internet in the world. EPB gained national notice when it deployed America’s first community-wide Gig-speed internet in 2010, later expanding the ubiquitously available service to 10 Gig in 2015 and 25 Gig in 2022. Ever committed to keeping Chattanooga on the cutting edge, in 2022, EPB established EPB Quantum NetworkSM powered by Qubitekk, America’s first industry-led, commercially available quantum network designed for private companies as well as government and university researchers to run quantum equipment and applications in an established fiber optic environment.

EPB utilizes its fiber optic network as the communications backbone for more than 200,000 smart switches, sensors and other devices. As a result, the Chattanooga area’s power distribution system is the most advanced and highly automated smart grid in the nation. This led the U.S. Department of Energy to name EPB a living laboratory for pioneering smart grid technologies. Since then, EPB has partnered with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and more than 20 other national research partners to play a critical role in more than $155 million in smart city research, earning such recognitions as the R&D 100 Award for its work to apply quantum technologies to securing America’s electric grid. EPB was also the first major power distribution utility to earn the GBCI’s PEER certification for having a highly automated, modernized electric power grid in 2015 and followed up in 2021 by re-certifying at PEER Gold.

EPB is an independent board of the City of Chattanooga which began serving customers in 1939 and today reaches a 600-square-mile service territory that includes the city of Chattanooga, Tennessee and the surrounding area. Visit epb.com for more information.

About Qubitekk

Qubitekk designs, builds and integrates the hardware and software for quantum networks, precursors to the quantum-enabled internet while championing the growth of a robust quantum ecosystem through education, advocacy and collaboration. Qubitekk’s comprehensive entanglement distribution technology is at the core of the Bohr-IV Metro Quantum Network solution deployed at EPB and utilized in its Quantum Network Essentials product line and secure network solutions being developed for drones, satellite communications and the electric grid.

Co-founded by Dr. Duncan Earl, a nationally recognized pioneer in the field of practical quantum applications, Qubitekk holds more patents than any American player in quantum communications and security and has been recognized with an Edison Gold Award and R&D World’s R&D 100 award.Qubitekk’s quantum technology is empowering the next generation of solutions for AI, machine learning, automation, sensing applications, cybersecurity and secure communications. The company’s growing list of partners and customers includes NASA, GE, Verizon, Juniper, Boeing, the United States Department of Energy and the United States Department of Defense. For more information, visit Qubitekk.com.