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Anais de XXXV Simpósio Brasileiro de Telecomunicações e Processamento de Sinais

Estimating Sources for Weak-Coherent-State-Based Quantum Key Distribution

Jadson L. Portela e Silva, H. M. Vasconcelos

Published Jan 1, 2018• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Quantum key distribution allows two parties to generate a shared cryptographic key of bits such that an eavesdropper is not able to obtain significant information about the key without being detected.In protocols based on the transmission of coherent states, the error rate, the key rate generation, and the system security depend on the source states used.In here, we show that quantum homodyne tomography using discretization of the measurements into histogram bin can be used as an estimator to analyze the aforementioned source states without losing too much information.

DOI
10.14209/sbrt.2018.43

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Quantum key distribution allows two parties to generate a shared cryptographic key of bits such that an eavesdropper is not able to obtain significant information about the key without being detected.In protocols based on the transmission of coherent states, the error rate, the key rate generation, and the system security depend on the source states used.In here, we show that quantum homodyne tomography using discretization of the measurements into histogram bin can be used as an estimator to analyze the aforementioned source states without losing too much information.
The safety of a quantum key distribution system relies on the fact that any eavesdropping attempt on the quantum channel creates errors in the transmission. For a given error rate, the amount of information that may have leaked to the eavesdropper depends on both the particular system and the eavesdropping strategy. In this work, we discuss quantum cryptographic protocols based on the transmission of weak coherent states and present a system, based on a symbiosis of two existing systems, for which the information available to the eavesdropper is significantly reduced. This system is therefore safer than the two previous ones. We also suggest a possible experimental implementation.
The safety of a quantum key distribution system relies on the fact that any eavesdropping attempt on the quantum channel creates errors in the transmission. For a given error rate, the amount of information that may have leaked to the eavesdropper depends on both the particular system and the eavesdropping strategy. In this work, we discuss quantum cryptographic protocols based on the transmission of weak coherent states and present a new system, based on a symbiosis of two existing ones, and for which the information available to the eavesdropper is significantly reduced. This system is therefore safer than the two previous ones. We also suggest a possible 1 experimental implementation.
To improve the performance of a quantum-key-distribution (QKD) system, high speed, low dark count single photon detectors (or low-noise homodyne detectors) are required. However, in practice, a fast detector is usually noisy. Here, we propose a dual-detector method to improve the performance of a practical QKD system with realistic detectors: the legitimate receiver randomly uses either a fast (but noisy) detector or a quiet (but slow) detector to measure the incoming quantum signals. The measurement results from the quiet detector can be used to bound the eavesdropper's information, while the measurement results from the fast detector are used to generate a secure key. We apply this idea to various QKD protocols. Simulation results demonstrate significant improvements of the secure key rate in the lower loss regime in both Bennett-Brassard 1984 (BB84) protocol with ideal single photon source and Gaussian-modulated coherent states protocol; while for decoy-state BB84 protocol with weak coherent source, the improvement is moderate. We also discuss various practical issues in implementing the dual-detector scheme.
The security of quantum key distribution (QKD) is based on the basic principles of quantum mechanics, and therefore has unconditional security in theory. In existing quantum key distribution systems, weakly coherent sources (WCSs) are often used as light sources due to a high probability of vacuum pulses in these sources, resulting in limited transmission distances. Besides, there inevitably exist equipment defects in actual QKD systems, such as certain defects in phase modulators and intensity modulators, which lead to distinguishability of quantum states in higher dimensions and result in side-channel vulnerabilities. An eavesdropper can carry out corresponding attacks, thereby threatening the actual security of QKD systems. To overcome the above limitations, we propose an improved protocol on quantum key distribution based on monitoring heralded single-photon sources. Due to the simultaneity of parametric down-conversion photon pairs, we can accurately predict the arrival of one photon by measuring the arrival time of another photon. Through this way, we can greatly reduce the probability of vacuum states in the signal light, and increase the longest transmission distance of the QKD system. Moreover, a light source monitoring module is inserted into the sender’s side. By randomly selecting a certain period of time through the source monitoring module to measure the Hong-Ou-Mandel interference between the signal light and the idle light , we can estimate the side-channel information leakage of the source and then obtain the key generation rate. Compared with the QKD protocol based on monitoring weak coherent sources, our present protocol can give a better performance in either the transmission distance or the key generation rate, especially when the interference error is large. In addition, in principle, our present protocol can also be extended to other quantum key distribution protocols, such as the measurement-device-independent protocols, to further improve the security and practicability of QKD systems. Therefore, our present work can provide valuable references for realizing the large-scale application of quantum communication networks in the near future.
Intrinsic quantum correlations of weak coherent states are observed between two parties through a novel detection scheme, which can be used as a supplement to the existence decoy-state Bennett-Brassard 1984 protocol and the differential phase-shift quantum key distribution (DPS-QKD) protocol. In a proof-of-principle experiment, we generate bipartite correlations of weak coherent states using weak local oscillator fields in two spatially separated balanced homodyne detections. We employ a nonlinearity of postmeasurement method to obtain the bipartite correlations from two single-field interferences at individual homodyne measurements. This scheme is then used to demonstrate bits correlations between two parties over a distance of 10 km through a transmission fiber. We believe that the scheme can add another physical layer of security to these protocols for quantum key distribution.
Intrinsic quantum correlations of weak coherent states are observed between two parties through a novel detection scheme, which can be used as a supplement to the existence decoy-state BB84 and differential phase-shift quantum key distribution (DPS-QKD) protocols. In a proof-of-principle experiment, we generate bi-partite correlations of weak coherent states using weak local oscillator fields in two spatially separated balanced homodyne detections. We employ nonlinearity of post-measurement method to obtain the bi-partite correlations from two single-field interferences at individual homodyne measurement. This scheme is then used to demonstrate bits correlations between two parties over a distance of 10 km through a transmission fiber. We believe that the scheme can add another physical layer of security to these protocols for quantum key distribution.