Layer 2 -- Optical Network Layer
Components
📍 Quantum communication systems (QKD)
📍 Optical switches, routers
Quantum Threats
Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) Attacks on QKD
Intercepting and resending quantum states (eg using quantum repeaters or memory) to break QKD protocols
Protocol Exploits
Exploiting weaknesses in QKD protocols (eg BB84, E91) by using quantum computing to solve underlying mathematical problems (eg Shor’s algorithm for factoring).
Quantum Jamming
Disrupting entanglement distribution or quantum state transmission, causing network outages
Traffic Analysis
Quantum sensors can analyze optical network traffic patterns to infer sensitive information.
Layer 1
Layer 1.5
Layer 2
Layer 3
Layer 4 -7
Summary