Game Theoretic Security Framework for Quantum Key Distribution

Syed M. Arslan, Saif M. Al-Kuwari, M. T. Rahim +1 more

ABSTRACT Quantum key distribution (QKD) is based on the laws of quantum mechanics to enable provably secure communication. Despite its theoretical security promise, practical QKD systems are vulnerable to serious attacks, including side‐channel attacks and detector loopholes, and assumes a trusted device characterisation. Device‐independent quantum key distribution (DIQKD) overcomes these limitations by relying solely on observed nonlocal correlations, certified through Bell inequality violations, thereby removing assumptions about the internal workings of the measurement devices. In this paper, we first review the foundational principles underlying DIQKD, including Bell tests and security definitions. We then examine a range of protocol designs, including CHSH‐based schemes, and non‐local game frameworks, alongside with their security proofs. We also assess recent experimental implementations and discuss source architectures, detection technologies and finite‐key analyses. Finally, we identify current open problems, such as noise tolerance, generation rates and integration with quantum networks and outline promising directions for future research to realize robust high‐performance DIQKD.

Songyang Han, Walter O. Krawec, Fei Miao

Norihito Toyota

Marwah, Ashutosh, Frédéric Dupuis

We present a parallel device independent quantum key distribution (DIQKD) protocol based on the CHSH game and prove its security. Using techniques developed for analysing the parallel repetition of anchored non-local games, we show that the answers on a small random linear subset of the games in the DIQKD protocol can be simulated as the output of a single-round strategy for playing the CHSH game. Then, we use the recently developed unstructured approximate entropy accumulation theorem to establish the smooth min-entropy lower bound required for the security proof. Our approach yields a more information-theoretic and general proof for parallel DIQKD compared to previous proofs.

Qingfan Cui, Qichao Xu, Zhou Su +2 more

Quantum key distribution (QKD) enables secure communication for vehicular networks, but its range limitation calls for multi-hop relaying. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can serve as flexible QKD relays, yet their selfish behavior and dynamic mobility pose significant challenges. This paper proposes a secure routing framework for UAV-assisted vehicular QKD that jointly addresses incentive compatibility and path reliability. We model the interaction between the source vehicle and UAVs as a Stackelberg game, where the source sets the relay reward and UAVs decide their participation. A smoothed relay path formulation ensures differentiability and equilibrium tractability. To enable decentralized learning of relay strategies, we adopt a multi-agent deep deterministic policy gradient (MADDPG) algorithm. Furthermore, a Bayesian optimization module is integrated to adaptively search for the optimal reward value that maximizes the source vehicle's utility. Simulation results show that the proposed Stackelberg-MADDPG-Bayesian scheme outperforms existing baselines in terms of relay request success rate and secure key generation rate, and remains robust under various UAV selfishness levels and network dynamics.

Lu Qun Zhou, Xin Sun, Chunhua Su +2 more