Cisco Readies New Control Plane for Quantum Networks
Network World, Tuesday, October 6th, 2026
Cisco's prototype Quantum Network Controller aims to coordinate entanglement across multi-vendor quantum networks.
Cisco's prototype Quantum Network Controller is designed to coordinate quantum computers, memories and switches on a shared fabric instead of building them point to point.
Through an Entanglement-as-a-Service model, applications would request entanglement by endpoint, rate, fidelity and timing, while a hardware abstraction layer lets any vendor's sources, switches and detectors plug in.
Because quantum states can't be inspected without being destroyed, the controller checks link quality statistically and applies tuning or retries, offering an early look at how quantum networks might be operated at scale.