Quantum Xchange, a leader in quantum-safe products and services for crypto agility and quantum readiness, announced that it has teamed up with CommStar Space Communications ("CommStar") and its cohort of international communications firms, satellite manufacturers, and technology providers to provide quantum-safe encryption across the CommStar architecture.
CommStar will integrate and operate a state-of-the-art communications infrastructure for the distribution of space data. Quantum Xchange will transform the way space communications are delivered, operated, and made accessible, securing the entire lunar network end-to-end. The converged global infrastructure and comprehensive services offerings of its service partners will enable the origination, storage, and delivery of space data for use by commercial, civil science, and government entities over an ultra-secure, quantum-protected network.
The CommStar end-to-end digital services platform will feature Quantum Xchange's groundbreaking, quantum-safe key distribution system for protecting data in motion. Phio Trusted Xchange (TX) is a simple architecture overlay that leverages an out-of-band symmetric key delivery technology to supplement native encryption with an additional key-encrypting-key (KEK) transmitted independent of the data path and through a quantum-protected tunnel. With Phio TX, quantum keys from any source – Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC), Quantum Key Distribution (QKD), Quantum Random Number Generated (QRNG), or a combination – can be delivered point-to-multipoint over any media that can carry TCP/IP v4 or v6 traffic. This includes fiber, satellite, 4G, 5G, or copper.
Phio TX will ensure data traveling between space platforms, off-planet facilities, and among distributors and consumers of data on the Earth is protected with the strongest encryption available today and future-ready for the threats of tomorrow.
Eddy Zervigon, CEO of Quantum Xchange, said that they are thrilled to be at the forefront of such an exciting endeavor helping to shape, and more importantly protect, the future of space communications. As an integral part of the CommStar's end-to-end data distribution ecosystem, they are proud to offer their ultra-secure, next-generation crypto architecture for secure communications 'between the Lunar surface, the Earth, and all areas in between and beyond. It's truly a quantum leap forward for the commercialization of space data.
To date, space communications has largely been the primary responsibility of government owned and operated communications networks. International space agencies, such as NASA and ESA, have expressed interest in having these costs and responsibilities transferred to the private sector – thereby allowing them to focus their limited taxpayer resources on off-planet exploration and become a buyer vs. owner/operator of communications services.
"We welcome Quantum Xchange as a new service provider in the CommStar ecosystem and our mission is to transform space communications by 2023," said Fletcher Brumley, CEO of CommStar Space Communications. "With the launch of our hybrid data relay satellite, CommStar-1, and through our work with leading service providers like Quantum Xchange, we can offer customers a highly secure, always-on communications network from and between Cislunar, the Moon, and Earth. This next-generation space communications network requires equally powerful and innovative next-generation security technologies like Phio TX by Quantum Xchange."
