As part of the then-3-year-old Quantum Information Science and Technology (QuIST) program, DARPA-funded researchers established the first so-called quantum key distribution network, a data-encryption framework for protecting a fiber-optic loop that connects facilities at Harvard University, Boston University, and the office of BBN Technologies in Cambridge, Mass.
Though only a step toward functional and practical quantum encryption systems, it represented the sort of community-building and thought leadership that it takes to move futuristic ideas, such as ones based on quantum mechanical processes, toward operational and current realities.
