Quantum-secured DSP-lite data transmission architecture for AI-driven data centers

作者：Xuanrong Ji, Wenjie He, Junda Chen, Mingming Zhang, Yuqi Li, Ziwen Zhou, Zhuoxuan Song, Hao Wu, Siqi Yan, Kejin Wei, Zhenrong Zhang, Shuang Wang, Ming Tang · 发表于：Advanced Photonics · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1117/1.ap.7.6.066006 · 被引用次数：2 · 研究领域：Interconnection Networks and Systems、Advancements in Semiconductor Devices and Circuit Design、Radiation Effects in Electronics

Artificial intelligence-driven (AI-driven) data centers, which require high-performance, scalable, energy-efficient, and secure infrastructure, have led to unprecedented data traffic demands. These demands involve low-latency, high-bandwidth connections, low power consumption, and data confidentiality. However, conventional optical interconnect solutions, such as intensity-modulated direct detection and traditional coherent systems, cannot address these requirements simultaneously. In particular, conventional encryption protocols that rely on complex algorithms are increasingly vulnerable to the rapid advancement of quantum computing. We propose and demonstrate a quantum-secured data transmission architecture that involves minimal digital signal processing (DSP) consumption and meets all the stringent requirements for AI-driven data center optical interconnect (AI-DCI) scenarios. By integrating a self-homodyne coherent (SHC) system and quantum key distribution (QKD) through the multicore-fiber-based space division multiplexing (SDM) technology, our scheme enables secure, high-capacity, and energy-efficient data transmission while ensuring resilience against quantum computing threats. In our demonstration, we achieved an expandable transmission capacity of 2 Tbit per second (Tb/s) with a quantum secret key rate (SKR) of 229.2 kb/s and further validated real-time encrypted transmission using AES-256 encryption with QKD-generated keys. Our work paves the way for constructing sec...