LG Uplus will develop international standards for quality management criteria for telecom networks that apply next-generation security technologies such as post-quantum cryptography (PQC) and quantum key distribution (QKD).

LG Uplus said on Saturday it is pushing standardisation of next-generation secure communications quality management technology that has been adopted as an international standardisation task by the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T).

The ITU-T is an international organisation that sets international standards for telecommunications technology worldwide. Tasks adopted by "ITU-T SG13", which studies future networks and service quality, are developed into international standards through consultations among member countries and member companies.

LG Uplus recently attended an ITU-T SG13 meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, and proposed a development direction for next-generation secure communications quality management technology jointly developed with IoT Communication Tech. The technology, adopted as an international standardisation task in February, aims to establish criteria for systematically managing service quality in communications environments where next-generation security and encryption technologies such as PQC and QKD are applied.

Applying PQC and QKD to telecom networks can add encryption and decryption, as well as key generation, distribution and management processes, which can increase latency. Maintaining existing levels of telecom service quality while applying security technology is therefore seen as a key task.

LG Uplus proposed latency-related quality management criteria to maintain existing levels of quality even in encrypted communications environments. For delay-sensitive services such as voice calls, it presented a target criterion of within about 0.15 seconds, a level at which users do not feel inconvenience. It also proposed managing together transmission delays occurring in the telecom network and delays occurring in cryptographic processing.

Kim Jong-cheol (김종철), head of wireline technology at LG Uplus, said, "In next-generation secure communications environments, not only security but also the quality customers experience is important," adding, "We will strengthen competitiveness in the global telecom market through international standard development."