Quantum VPN
Secure Deployment and High-Performance Networking for Multi-Backbone VPN Architecture
Contract research for Quantum Bridge Technologies: secure deployment and key management for DSKE-based software (HSM, TPM, TEE, confidential VMs) and ultra-low-latency multi-backbone traffic steering with eBPF/XDP, DPDK, SmartNICs and DPUs.
The project
Quantum VPN – Secure Deployment and High-Performance Networking for Multi-Backbone VPN Architecture is a research and development collaboration funded and directed by Quantum Bridge Technologies, a company developing quantum-safe key distribution (DSKE) and VPN products, and carried out by the University of L'Aquila under a contract-research agreement.
The project addresses two questions at the core of deploying quantum-safe networking software in production. First, how to deploy securely the software components that handle cryptographic material, including private/public keys and DSKE-derived symmetric keys, and what the risks are of operating without a physical Hardware Security Module. Second, how to filter and route customer traffic across multiple backbone networks with near-zero added latency, so that a VPN service can dynamically switch or distribute traffic among backbones according to policy.
Our role
NSLab carries out the whole technical programme:
- Secure software deployment and key management: threat modelling and risk assessment, comparative analysis of at least three candidate security stacks, with and without HSM, covering physical and virtual HSMs, cloud HSM services, Trusted Platform Modules, Trusted Execution Environments and Confidential Virtual Machines; key storage and lifecycle management, isolation mechanisms and a recommended deployment architecture for the Quantum Bridge software platform, together with a mapping and roadmap of the certification paths relevant to the Italian market.
- Ultra-low-latency traffic filtering and routing: design and prototyping of a high-performance architecture that distributes traffic from customer premises equipment across multiple backbones with policy-based decisions, comparing eBPF/XDP, DPDK, FPGA acceleration, SmartNICs and DPUs in terms of latency, throughput and operational complexity, with benchmarking and illustrative code of the selected design.
The work is organised in two phases: architecture study, comparative analysis and initial prototyping (months 1–8, phase report), then validation through implementation, testing and performance evaluation (months 9–15, final report and demonstration package).
Facts
- Client: Quantum Bridge Technologies (EU) S.r.l., Milan.
- Duration: 15 months.
- Scientific lead: Andrea Marotta.
Publications (0)
No publications linked to this project yet.