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Optica

Measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution robust against environmental disturbances

Chao Wang, Zhen−Qiang Yin, Shuang Wang, Wei Chen, Guang‐Can Guo, Zheng‐Fu Han

Published Aug 22, 2017• 142 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (MDI QKD) is a promising protocol for removing all detector side channel attacks. However, the variation of reference frames, e.g., polarization and phase reference, would be an acute threat to the performance of MDI systems. Here, based on polarization scrambling units, we demonstrate a reference-frame-independent MDI QKD scheme that is inherently stable against volatile channel conditions; therefore, the final secure key rate will be insensitive to the random disturbances of polarization and the drifts of phase reference. Thus, calibrations of the primary reference frames are intrinsically removed in our scheme, which essentially reduces potential vulnerabilities as well as the resource consumption of the whole system. In addition, a proof-of-principle experiment with an improved fluctuation analysis method is demonstrated to verify the feasibility and advantages of the proposed scheme.

DOI
10.1364/optica.4.001016

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Measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (MDI QKD) is a promising protocol for removing all detector side channel attacks. However, the variation of reference frames, e.g., polarization and phase reference, would be an acute threat to the performance of MDI systems. Here, based on polarization scrambling units, we demonstrate a reference-frame-independent MDI QKD scheme that is inherently stable against volatile channel conditions; therefore, the final secure key rate will be insensitive to the random disturbances of polarization and the drifts of phase reference. Thus, calibrations of the primary reference frames are intrinsically removed in our scheme, which essentially reduces potential vulnerabilities as well as the resource consumption of the whole system. In addition, a proof-of-principle experiment with an improved fluctuation analysis method is demonstrated to verify the feasibility and advantages of the proposed scheme.
Measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (MDI-QKD) is proved to be able to eliminate all potential detector side channel attacks. Combining with the reference frame independent (RFI) scheme, the complexity of practical system can be reduced because of the unnecessary alignment for reference frame. Here, based on polarization multiplexing, we propose a time-bin encoding structure, and experimentally demonstrate the RFI-MDI-QKD protocol. Thanks to this, two of the four Bell states can be distinguished, whereas only one is used to generate the secure key in previous RFI-MDI-QKD experiments. As far as we know, this is the first demonstration for RFI-MDI-QKD protocol with clock rate of 50 MHz and distance of more than hundred kilometers between legitimate parties Alice and Bob. In asymptotic case, we experimentally compare RFI-MDI-QKD protocol with the original MDI-QKD protocol at the transmission distance of 160 km, when the different misalignments of the reference frame are deployed. By considering observables and statistical fluctuations jointly, four-intensity decoy-state RFI-MDI-QKD protocol with biased bases is experimentally achieved at the transmission distance of 100km and 120km. The results show the robustness of our scheme, and the key rate of RFI-MDI-QKD can be improved obviously under a large misalignment of the reference frame.
Quantum key distribution (QKD) networks are promising to serve large numbers of users with information-theoretic secure communication. In QKD networks, the detection-safe protocol, termed measurement-device-independent (MDI) QKD, can naturally enhance realistic security by supporting untrusted measurement nodes. However, the environmental disturbances to quantum states degrade the performance of multi-user communication. Here we propose an MDI-QKD networking scheme with robustness against environmental disturbance and adaptability to multi-user access, where more than two users can generate keys simultaneously regardless of aligning reference frames and compensating channel disturbance on polarization. To achieve this, we introduce the reference-frame-independent protocol as well as a polarization-compensation-free method, design a multi-user measurement unit, and combine it with original two-user units. The scheme is experimentally demonstrated for the improvement of network robustness and adaptability in multi-user scenarios, and the time and device costs of disturbance compensation can be saved from O ( N ) to O ( 1 ) for an N-user network.
Reference-frame-independent measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (RFI-MDI-QKD) eliminates detector side-channel attacks and avoids reference-frame calibration. While its feasibility has been widely demonstrated, existing implementations typically assume fixed or slowly drifting reference-frame misalignment, conditions rarely satisfied outside the laboratory. In realistic environments, rapid and free-running reference-frame variations can severely degrade both the key rate and transmission distance of conventional RFI-MDI-QKD. Here we propose a free-running RFI-MDI-QKD protocol that maintains high-rate key generation under rapid reference-frame variations. By introducing a classification-distillation method that reclassifies total detection events, secure keys can be extracted without modifying the experimental setup. Our protocol achieves a key rate more than nine times higher than the best previous RFI-MDI-QKD scheme and tolerates channel losses exceeding 24 dB, where earlier approaches fail. These results enable practical quantum key distribution on mobile platforms, including satellite-to-ground links and airborne nodes.
Abstract Reference-frame-independent measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (RFI-MDI-QKD) can remove all potential detector side-channel attacks and the requirement of real-time alignment of reference frames. However, all previous RFI-MDI-QKD implementations assume the perfect state preparation in sources, which is impractical and may lead to security loopholes. Here, we propose an RFI-MDI-QKD protocol which is robust against state preparation flaws. Comparing to the conventional six-state RFI-MDI-QKD, our scheme can be realized with only four flawed states, which improves the practical security of RFI-MDI-QKD and simplifies the experimental implementation. In addition, simulation results demonstrate that source flaws in Z basis have adverse effect on the performance of RFI-MDI-QKD while the source flaws in X and Y bases have almost no effect. We hope that this work could provide a valuable reference for practical implementations of RFI-MDI-QKD.
Reference-frame-independent measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (RFI-MDI-QKD) is proposed to remove all possible detector side channel attacks without the alignment of reference frames. Due to unavoidable multiphoton events in practical sources, the decoy-state method is always adopted in real-life QKD systems. Unlike original MDI-QKD (O-MDI-QKD), the characterization on practical decoy-state RFI-MDI-QKD is still absent to date. In this paper, we investigate the performance of practical decoy-state RFI-MDI-QKD at different misalignments of reference frames with full parameter optimization when considering statistical fluctuations, and provide a clear comparison between decoy-state RFI-MDI-QKD and O-MDI-QKD. Simulation results demonstrate that decoy-state RFI-MDI-QKD can exhibit performance comparable to that of O-MDI-QKD in practical scenarios, which is very robust in QKD systems.
Among all present quantum key distribution protocols, the reference-frame-independent measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (RFI-MDI-QKD) is standing out due to its high security and practicability, since it can not only remove all detector-side-channel attacks, but also relax the requirement of reference-frame calibrations. However, till today, the performance degradation of RFI-MDI-QKD caused by finite-size effects is one of the biggest impediment to its practical implementations. Here, we propose an enhanced RFI-MDI-QKD protocol which is highly resistant to the finite-size effect and immensely boosts both the key rate and transmission distance. As a result, it can even surpass the most advanced MDI-QKD protocol under larger rotation angles of reference frames. Furthermore, with the state-of-the-art RFI-MDI-QKD setup, we successfully carry out a proof-of-principle experimental demonstration at a record distance of 300km. The experiments under non-ideal condition verify the advantage and robustness of our present work.