This paper addresses the study of the Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) BB84 protocol used at the telecoms wavelength 1550 nm with Single Mode Fiber (SMF) and realistic physical parameters features. We simulate the protocol with considering an optimized attack strategy and show that the Heralded Single Photon Source (HSPS) is more advantageous than the Attenuated Laser (AL) for mainly security considerations.
This paper addresses the study of the Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) BB84 protocol used at the telecoms wavelength 1550 nm with Single Mode Fiber (SMF) and realistic physical parameters features. We simulate the protocol with considering an optimized attack strategy and show that the Heralded Single Photon Source (HSPS) is more advantageous than the Attenuated Laser (AL) for mainly security considerations.
Despite technically successful experiments, most of current quantum key distribution (QKD) systems based on the original BB84 protocols are insecure. The reason is the usage of weak coherent pulses (WCP) as pseudo single photon source (SPS), which allows an eavesdropper to get full information on the key in presence of high optical losses on the transmission channel. To overcome this problem, we have developed a pulse heralded single photon source (HSPS), which we have used for QKD over 40 km of fiber.
In this work, we simulate a fiber-based Quantum Key Distribution Protocol (QKDP) BB84 working at the telecoms wavelength 1550 nm with taking into consideration an optimized attack strategy. We consider in our work a quantum channel composed by probabilistic Single Photon Source (SPS), single mode optical Fiber and quantum detector with high efficiency. We show the advantages of using the Quantum Dots (QD) embedded in micro-cavity compared to the Heralded Single Photon Sources (HSPS). Second, we show that Eve is always getting some information depending on the mean photon number per pulse of the used SPS and therefore, we propose an optimized version of the QKDP BB84 based on Quantum Dense Coding (QDC) that could be implemented by quantum CNOT gates. We evaluate the success probability of implementing the optimized QKDP BB84 when using nowadays probabilistic quantum optical devices for circuit realization. We use for our modeling an abstract probabilistic model of a CNOT gate based on linear optical components and having a success probability of sqrt (4/27), we take into consideration the best SPSs realizations, namely the QD and the HSPS, generating a single photon per pulse with a success probability of 0.73 and 0.37, respectively. We show that the protocol is totally secure against attacks but could be correctly implemented only with a success probability of few percent.
For the Bennett-Brassard 1984 (BB84) quantum key distribution, longer distance and higher key generating rate is shown with a heralded single-photon source (HSPS) [Phys. Rev. A. 73, 032331 (2006)]. In this paper, the performance of the Scarani-Acin-Ribordy-Gisim (SARG) protocol utilizing the HSPS sources is considered and the numerical simulation turns out that still a significant improvement in secret key generating rate can also be observed. It is shown that the security distance for HSPS+SARG is 120km. However, compared with the HSPS+BB84 protocols, the HSPS+SARG protocol has a lower secret key rate and a shorter distance. Thus we show the HSPS+BB84 implementation is a preferable protocol for long distance transmittance.
Mode-pairing quantum key distribution (MP-QKD) is a promising protocol immune to detector side-channel attacks and capable of breaking the repeaterless PLOB bound without global phase locking. Existing MP-QKD protocols employ weak coherent sources (WCSs) with a low probability of single-photon emission, hindering MP-QKD's performance improvement. We propose a new, to the best of our knowledge, MP-QKD protocol using the heralded single-photon source (HSPS) to significantly reduce the vacuum emission probability and increase the single-photon emission rate. Compared with the original WCS-MP-QKD protocol, this protocol has three advantages. First, its maximum transmission distance is extended from 488 km to 560 km. Second, the key rates at 100, 200, 300, and 400 km are 4.4 to 7.4 times those of the original protocol. Third, it does not change the original architecture of MP-QKD and is easy to implement experimentally. This HSPS-MP-QKD protocol has application potential in future metropolitan area QKD networks.
An ever-increasing demand for higher photon generation rates in quantum light sources often leads to the generation of multiple photon pairs, making quantum secure imaging, sensing, and communication vulnerable to photon number splitting (PNS) attacks. Here, we investigate the use of weak coherent sources (WCS) and heralded single-photon sources (HSPS) in conjunction with quantum key distribution protocols to mitigate these risks. Our initial observation shows that the BB84 protocol using HSPS has an advantage in secured information transfer over the WCS. We then extend our comparative study between WCS and HSPS to high dimensional protocols and conduct a rigorous analysis to estimate a benchmark for quantum advantage in secure bit rate thresholds for secure information transfer. When combined with high-dimensional states (hybrid encoding), the two-state non-orthogonal encoding protocol offers an increased resistance to PNS and unambiguous state discrimination attacks. These findings suggest that integrating high dimensional encoding would strengthen the security and performance of quantum secure imaging, sensing, and communication systems for practical and resilient implementations at shorter distances.
Deterministic solid-state quantum light sources are key building blocks in photonic quantum technologies. While several proof-of-principle experiments of quantum communication using such sources have been realized, all of them required bulky setups. Here, we evaluate for the first time the performance of a compact and stand-alone fiber-coupled single-photon source emitting in the telecom O-band (1321nm) for its application in quantum key distribution (QKD). For this purpose, we developed a compact 19'' rack module including a deterministically fiber-coupled quantum dot single-photon source integrated into a Stirling cryocooler, a pulsed diode laser for driving the quantum dot, and a fiber-based spectral filter. We further employed this compact quantum light source in a QKD testbed designed for polarization coding via the BB84 protocol resulting in g(2)(0)=0.10±0.01 and a raw key rate of up to (4.72±0.13)kHz using an external laser for excitation. In this setting we investigate the achievable performance expected in full implementations of QKD. Using 2D temporal filtering on receiver side, we evaluate optimal parameter settings for different QKD transmission scenarios taking also finite key size effects into account. Using optimized parameter sets for the temporal acceptance time window, we predict a maximal tolerable loss of 23.19dB. Finally, we compare our results to previous QKD systems using quantum dot single-photon sources. Our study represents an important step forward in the development of fiber-based quantum-secured communication networks exploiting sub-Poissonian quantum light sources.