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Chinese Physics Letters

A Three-Node QKD Network Based on a Two-Way QKD System

Jia-Jia Han, Shi‐Hai Sun, Lin-Mei Liang

Published Apr 1, 2011• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We demonstrate a three-node active quantum key distribution (QKD) network with our previous two-way QKD system. An optical switch is used as a router to connect the two nodes. Adjacent nodes are connected by a 25 km optical fiber. The test over 11 h shows that our system can reduce the Raleigh backscattering efficiently in the absence of the storage fiber. Furthermore, the obtained average sifted key is about 1.2 kbps in the network, with high visibility and low quantum bit error rate in the long-time test.

DOI
10.1088/0256-307x/28/4/040303

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We demonstrate a three-node active quantum key distribution (QKD) network with our previous two-way QKD system. An optical switch is used as a router to connect the two nodes. Adjacent nodes are connected by a 25 km optical fiber. The test over 11 h shows that our system can reduce the Raleigh backscattering efficiently in the absence of the storage fiber. Furthermore, the obtained average sifted key is about 1.2 kbps in the network, with high visibility and low quantum bit error rate in the long-time test.
We previously demonstrated a high speed, point to point, quantum key distribution (QKD) system with polarization coding over a fiber link, in which the resulting cryptographic keys were used for one-time pad encryption of real time video signals. In this work, we extend the technology to a three-node active QKD network - one Alice and two Bobs. A QKD network allows multiple users to generate and share secure quantum keys. In comparison with a passive QKD network, nodes in an active network can actively select a destination as a communication partner and therefore, its sifted-key rate can remain at a speed almost as high as that in the point-to-point QKD. We demonstrate our three-node QKD network in the context of a QKD secured real-time video surveillance system. In principle, the technologies for the three-node network are extendable to multi-node networks easily. In this paper, we report our experiments, including the techniques for timing alignment and polarization recovery during switching, and discuss the network architecture and its expandability to multi-node networks.
Abstract We report the implementation of a quantum key distribution (QKD) system over a three-user fiber-optic network in which each user employs an identical bidirectional transceiver, with a single asymmetric interferometer shared between the encoding and decoding paths to reduce duplicated optical resources at the node level. The three users-Alice, Bob, and Charlie-are interconnected through a passive circulator-based hub built from 3-port optical circulators, which enables secure key exchange between any pair of them without active switching or a trusted intermediary. Each user is connected to the central circulator via standard telecom fiber links of 10-15 km, resulting in effective inter-user distances of 20-25 km. We employed the BB84 protocol with a two-decoy-state method (weak and vacuum) for secure key generation. For each user pair, sifted keys of 10610^6106 bits were processed with a composable security parameter ε∼10−8\varepsilon \sim 10^{-8}ε∼10−8 . Secret key lengths were evaluated using three approaches: (1) theoretical estimation based on measured quantum bit error rate (QBER) and gains, assuming an error correction efficiency of 1.16; (2) experimental post-processing using Winnow; and (3) experimental post-processing using Cascade. All links achieved low QBERs and yielded positive secret key lengths. Cascade consistently produced longer final keys due to its higher reconciliation efficiency. These results demonstrate the feasibility of a resource-sharing bidirectional node architecture for secure multi-user quantum communication using passive circulator-based routing.
A novel, user-friendly quantum key distribution (QKD) system operating at a wavelength of 1550nm and at a clock rate of 10MHz was constructed to explore the compatibility of this emerging technology with the optical fiber network environment. Custom circuit boards providing the low-level control and sensing functions for both the transmitter and receiver were developed, allowing software-based system reconfiguration via USB interface to personal computers. The computer control allowed the user to change operating parameters such as detector bias voltages and pulse delays and also allowed for self-tuning of the system. Epitaxx avalanche photodiodes, operated in Geiger mode, were used to detect the single photons. A complete QKD protocol stack incorporating the sifting, reconciliation, privacy amplification, authentication and key confirmation functions was implemented in software. The system was tested over twenty five kilometers of dark underground fiber, producing 18.6 million sifted bits, with a sifted bit error rate of 4.9% at an average number of photons per pulse of 0.2, during a continuous 12-hour period of self-sustaining operation: a small portion of the secret bits distilled from each session's sifted bits were used to authenticate the next session. A total of 6.8 million shared secret bits were produced.
We developed a one-way quantum key distribution (QKD) system based upon a planar lightwave circuit (PLC) interferometer. This interferometer is expected to be free from the backscattering inherent in commercially available two-way QKD systems and phase drift without active compensation. A key distribution experiment with spools of standard telecom fiber showed that the bit error rate was as low as 6% for a 100-km key distribution using an attenuated laser pulse with a mean photon number of 0.1 and was determined solely by the detector noise. This clearly demonstrates the advantages of our PLC-based one-way QKD system over two-way QKD systems for long distance key distribution.
We developed a one-way quantum key distribution (QKD) system based upon a planar lightwave circuit (PLC) interferometer. This interferometer is expected to be free from the backscattering inherent in commercially available two-way QKD systems and phase drift without active compensation. A key distribution experiment with spools of standard telecom fiber showed that the bit error rate was as low as 6% for a 100-km key distribution using an attenuated laser pulse with a mean photon number of 0.1 and was determined solely by the detector noise. This clearly demonstrates the advantages of our PLC-based one-way QKD system over two-way QKD systems for long distance key distribution.