The implementation of an optical transport network, especially between datacenters, has been progressing. Similar to the Internet, communications on the optical transport network are protected by public-key cryptography and symmetric-key cryptography, but there are concerns that advances in the research and development of quantum computers will pose a risk to current cryptographic systems, public-key cryptography and key exchange in particular. In response to this problem, researchers at NTT Social Informatics Laboratories and NTT Network Innovation Laboratories are engaged in the research and development of safe key-exchange schemes to counter the cryptographic risks posed by quantum computers. They are also engaged in architecture design and tests with actual equipment with the aim of applying such key-exchange schemes to the optical transport network.

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