The confidentiality of the information transmitted is secured by encryption, for which it is necessary to establish a secret key. The algorithms used for this purpose are based on mathematical problems of computational complexity that are threatened by the advent of quantum computers. It is on these that it is possible to reduce the complexity of the problems used in today's cryptographic algorithms and, combined with the extreme power of quantum computers, to achieve the breaking of existing ciphers in pseudo-real time. One approach to eliminate this risk is quantum key distribution, which exploits properties of quantum physics to establish keys. A team assembled at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (FEECS) in Ostrava has experience with this technology gained during research tasks, which they eventually capitalized on in the aforementioned paper.

"The paper deals with the design and implementation of quantum key distribution in 5G networks. The practical deployment of quantum key distribution and high-security encryption was carried out in a 5G campus network in our university campus. The inclusion among the most cited papers acknowledges the honest work done by all authors, and I am very pleased that students from our faculty also contributed to this output," said Professor Miroslav Vozňák from FEECS, who led the research.

Citation monitoring is carried out by Web of Science, where the paper is listed among Highly Cited Papers. The research leading to the excellent result was supported by the NATO QUANTUM5 project and the ICRC NESPOQ.