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Asia Communications and Photonics Conference

Software Defined Quantum Key Distribution Networks

Yongli Zhao, Zhuangzhuang Ma, Hua Wang, Xiaosong Yu, Jie Zhang

Published Nov 2, 2019• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

In the sight of quantum key distribution (QKD) development, this paper combines software defined networking (SDN) with QKD networks, introduces the architecture of software defined QKD networks (SD-QKDN), several related technologies and typical use cases.

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As an important support for quantum communication, quantum key distribution (QKD) networks have achieved a relatively mature level of development, and they face higher requirements for multi-user end-to-end networking capabilities. Thus, QKD networks need an effective management plane to control and coordinate with the QKD resources. As a promising technology, software defined networking (SDN) can separate the control and management of QKD networks from the actual forwarding of the quantum keys. This paper systematically introduces QKD networks enabled by SDN, by elaborating on its overall architecture, related interfaces, and protocols. Then, three-use cases are provided as important paradigms with their corresponding schemes and simulation performances.
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