Secure Optical IPsec for AI Training: SMARTY’s Post-Quantum Approach

With the advancement of quantum computing, conventional cryptographic systems are becoming increasingly exposed to potential quantum attacks, creating the need for new security mechanisms to protect future digital infrastructures.

Within SMARTY, in collaboration with QUARC (G.A. 101073355), the feasibility of integrating Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) into optical IPsec networks has been demonstrated to support confidential AI workloads.

The proposed implementation combines NIST-selected PQC algorithms—Kyber, Falcon and Dilithium—with AES-256-GCM encryption to establish secure IPsec tunnels for both client-to-cloud and intra-data center communications. Experimental results show throughput of up to 0.486 Gbit/s in wireless scenarios and up to 100 Gbit/s in data centers, enabled by hardware acceleration through Data Processing Units (DPUs).

Overall, these results highlight the potential of post-quantum secure networking technologies to ensure strong security and high performance for AI training and inference.

This work has been published in D. C. Lawo et al, “Future Data Centers: Hardware-Offloaded Post-Quantum Secure Optical IPsec Tunnel for Confidential AI Training”, ONDM Conf, 2025 

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