TRNGs are based on measuring a specific (random) physical process to produce random digits. Thus, the randomness of such numbers comes from the underlying physical process, which may indeed be completely unpredictable. TRNGs are the baseline for security applications.

TRNGs are hardware components and sophisticated engineering is required to build them properly. Unfortunately, current communication systems rely on weak TRNG designs, compromising security and/or performance of the communications. There are mainly two reasons for this reliance on weak TRNG designs. First, some systems do not even have a dedicated TRNG hardware component, due to cost or design choice, thus relying on generic components in the system to produce random samples (e.g., clock interrupts from the operating system). Second, many TRNGs are designed based on physical principles that are complex and therefore produce “random-looking” dynamics (e.g., chaos), but which are, by principle, predictable and deterministic, which a sufficiently motivated attacker or a badly operated system may reveal to compromise security.

Building reliable, fast and unpredictable TRNGs is essential for the present and future of cryptography. And Quantum technologies are now being used to produce quantum-enhanced TRNGs, that is How do quantum number generators work.

About Quside’s phase-diffusion technology, Quside QRNGs are based on the phase-diffusion process in semiconductor lasers. The core element of the technology is converting microscopic quantum observables, which are delicate and hard to measure, into macroscopic dynamics that are robust and easy to capture. To do this, we modulate a semiconductor laser from below to above its threshold level or produce a stream of phase randomized optical pulses. This is called gain-switching.

Then, we use an interferometer to convert the phase fluctuations into the amplitude domain, generating a stream of amplitude-randomized optical pulses at the output (see refs [2, 3] for two examples of interferometers that we use). Finally, a fast photodiode converts the photonic signal into the electronic domain, where standard electronics are used for turning the analog signal into the digital realm.

At the heart, the unpredictability of the phase-diffusion technology traces back to the process of spontaneous emission, which occurs as a result of the interaction between the quantum vacuum field and the laser’s gain medium. Quside’s technology exploits this quantum-mechanical process to produce quantum-based random numbers at multiple Gigabits per second.

Testing randomness is a complex matter and the way it has been traditionally done is completely flawed. The question “how do you know it is random?” is a hard one to answer, and this is an area where we have been working since 2012, introducing our randomness metrology methodology in 2014 and collaborating with world-leading researchers from NIST, IQOQI and TU Delft to apply it in landmark experiments.

Our methodology defines strict quality bounds on all our devices to capture the quality of the unpredictability we produce, and the best part is that we can confidently do it in a transparent manner. This boosts trust and confidence with our customers, who do not have to rely on black boxes anymore for producing their cryptographic material.

In many traditional TRNGs, not based on quantum processes, it is extremely hard or even impossible to place rigorous quality bounds. As randomness is not emerging from a fundamentally random process.