Appendix · QKD: Manufacturers and products
This chapter is a comprehensive appendix on commercial QKD products and vendors. It surveys a wide range of manufacturers, including European and international providers, and describes their systems in terms of protocol families, device architecture, operating wavelengths, target applications, key rates, attenuation limits, and deployment scenarios. The chapter covers both discrete-variable and continuous-variable systems, as well as entanglement-based and measurement-device-independent approaches.
A major strength of the chapter is its effort to compare manufacturer claims with user reports, published field trials, and independent observations wherever possible. It distinguishes official data-sheet specifications from likely raw-key figures, secret-key rates, and practical long-term averages. It also repeatedly addresses the problem that many public claims are difficult to compare directly because vendors use different metrics and test conditions.
Beyond pure performance, the chapter also examines costs, stability, operational maturity, software quality, KMS integration, ETSI interface support, and interoperability in multi-vendor environments. The overall result is not a ranking but a structured, critical map of the QKD product landscape.
- Reviews major commercial QKD manufacturers
- Compares protocols, devices, and deployment models
- Distinguishes marketing claims from practical evidence
- Covers costs, maturity, and interoperability
- Supports manufacturer-neutral procurement analysis