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Europhysics Letters (EPL)

Indistinguishable encoding for bidirectional quantum key distribution: Theory to experiment

Jesni Shamsul Shaari, Suryadi Suryadi

Published Dec 1, 2017• 10 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We present a bidirectional quantum key distribution protocol with minimal encoding operations derived from the use of only two “nonorthogonal” unitary transformations selected from two mutually unbiased unitary bases. Differently from many bidirectional protocols, these transformations are indistinguishable in principle for a single use. Along with its decoding procedure, it is unique compared to its “orthogonal encoding” predecessors. Given the nature of such protocols where key rates are usually dependent on two different types of error rates, we define a more relevant notion of security threshold for such protocols to allow for proper comparisons to be made. The current protocol outperforms its predecessor in terms of security as the amount of information an eavesdropper can glean is limited by the indistinguishability of the transformations. We further propose adaptations for a practical scenario and report on a proof of concept experimental scheme based on polarised photons from an attenuated pulsed laser for qubits, demonstrating the feasibility of such a protocol.

DOI
10.1209/0295-5075/120/60001

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We present a bidirectional quantum key distribution protocol with minimal encoding operations derived from the use of only two “nonorthogonal” unitary transformations selected from two mutually unbiased unitary bases. Differently from many bidirectional protocols, these transformations are indistinguishable in principle for a single use. Along with its decoding procedure, it is unique compared to its “orthogonal encoding” predecessors. Given the nature of such protocols where key rates are usually dependent on two different types of error rates, we define a more relevant notion of security threshold for such protocols to allow for proper comparisons to be made. The current protocol outperforms its predecessor in terms of security as the amount of information an eavesdropper can glean is limited by the indistinguishability of the transformations. We further propose adaptations for a practical scenario and report on a proof of concept experimental scheme based on polarised photons from an attenuated pulsed laser for qubits, demonstrating the feasibility of such a protocol.
We present for the first time, a bidirectional Quantum Key Distribution protocol with minimal encoding operations derived from the use of two `nonorthogonal' unitary transformations selected from two mutually unbiased unitary bases; which are indistinguishable in principle for a single use. Along with its decoding procedure, it is a stark contrast to its `orthogonal encoding' predecessors. Defining a more relevant notion of security threshold for such protocols, the current protocol outperforms its predecessor in terms of security as the maximal amount of information an eavesdropper can glean is essentially limited by the indistinguishability of the transformations. We further propose adaptations for a practical scenario and report on a proof of concept experimental scheme based on polarised photons from an attenuated pulsed laser for qubits, demonstrating the feasibility of such a protocol.
Quantum Key Distribution is a secure method that implements cryptographic protocols. The applications of quantum key distribution technology have an important role: to enhance the security in communication systems. It is originally inspired by the physical concepts associated with quantum mechanics. It aims to enable a secure exchange of cryptographic keys between two parties through an unsecured quantum communication channel. This work proposes a secure half-duplex bidirectional quantum key distribution protocol. The security of the proposed protocol is proved against collective attacks by estimating the interception of any eavesdropper with high probability in both directions under the control of the two parties. A two-qubit state encodes two pieces of information; the first qubit represents the transmitted bit and the second qubit represents the basis used for measurement. The partial diffusion operator is used to encrypt the transmitted qubit state as an extra layer of security. The predefined symmetry transformations induced by unitary in conjunction with the asymmetrical two-qubit teleportation scheme retain the protocol’s secrecy. Compared to the previous protocols, the proposed protocol has better performance on qubit efficiency.
We present a two-way protocol for the quantum key distribution with practical faint laser pulses. It is secure when the faint laser pulses contain no more than two photons. The key distribution task is completed in two transmissions. Bob first sends the laser pulses to Alice, and Alice encodes the key message through certain unitary operations and returns the laser pulses to Bob. Security is achieved by placing eavesdropping check procedures in both transmissions. This protocol is secure and is close to practical conditions. In addition, it does not require the exchange of measuring basis information between Alice and Bob, hence saving a lot of storage space.
The best qubit one-way quantum-key-distribution (QKD) protocol can tolerate up to 14.6% in the error rate. It has been shown how this rate can be increased by using larger quantum systems. The polarization state of a biphoton can encode a three-level quantum system---a qutrit. The realization of a QKD system with biphotons encounters several problems in generating, manipulating, and detecting such photon states. We define those limitations and find within them a few protocols that perform almost as well as the ideal qutrit protocol. One advantage is that these protocols can be implemented with minor modifications into existing single photon systems. The security of one protocol is proved for the most general coherent attacks and the largest acceptable error rate for this protocol is found to be around 17.7%. For comparison, the security of the best possible qutrit protocol of four mutually unbiased bases was also rigorously analyzed against general attacks, with a proven bound on the acceptable error rate of 21.1%.
Quantum cryptography allows the establishing of a highly confidential sequence of random bits between two parties who share no secret information in advance. Its security is guaranteed by the basic laws of quantum mechanics rather than mathematical difficulty. An experimental system based on a novel protocol for quantum cryptography using only two nonorthogonal photon polarization states is implemented. The photon sources are two semiconductor laser diodes operated at 680 nm, their light pulses which are heavily attenuated to far below one photon per pulse are employed to encode the key. Gated single photon detection technique is used to minimize the dark count effect of the photon multiplier tube. Key establishing rate of 40 b/s and error rate of 2.1% are obtained. Compared with other systems, our system has the simplest experimental setup.
The problem of security of quantum key protocols is examined. In addition to the distribution of classical keys, the problem of encrypting quantum data and the structure of the operators which perform quantum encryption is studied. It is found that unitary bases are central to both encryption of quantum information, as well as the generation of states used in generalized quantum key distribution (which are called mutually unbiased bases). A one-to-one correspondence between certain unitary bases and mutually unbiased bases is found. Finally, a new protocol for making anonymous classical broadcasts is given along with a security proof. An experimental procedure to implement this protocol is also given. In order to prove these new results, some new bounds for accessible information of quantum sources are obtained.