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Frontiers of Physics

Simultaneous measurement-device-independent continuous variable quantum key distribution with realistic detector compensation

Xiaodong Wu, Yi-Jun Wang, Duan Huang, Ying Guo

Published Mar 6, 2020• 16 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We propose a novel scheme for measurement-device-independent (MDI) continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CVQKD) by simultaneously conducting classical communication and QKD, which is called “simultaneous MDI-CVQKD” protocol. In such protocol, each sender (Alice, Bob) can superimpose random numbers for QKD on classical information by taking advantage of the same weak coherent pulse and an untrusted third party (Charlie) decodes it by using the same coherent detectors, which could be appealing in practice due to that multiple purposes can be realized by employing only single communication system. What is more, the proposed protocol is MDI, which is immune to all possible side-channel attacks on practical detectors. Security results illustrate that the simultaneous MDI-CVQKD protocol can secure against arbitrary collective attacks. In addition, we employ phase-sensitive optical amplifiers to compensate the imperfection existing in practical detectors. With this technology, even common practical detectors can be used for detection through choosing a suitable optical amplifier gain. Furthermore, we also take the finite-size effect into consideration and show that the whole raw keys can be taken advantage of to generate the final secret key instead of sacrificing part of them for parameter estimation. Therefore, an enhanced performance of the simultaneous MDI-CVQKD protocol can be obtained in finite-size regime.

DOI
10.1007/s11467-020-0954-8

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We propose a novel scheme for measurement-device-independent (MDI) continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CVQKD) by simultaneously conducting classical communication and QKD, which is called “simultaneous MDI-CVQKD” protocol. In such protocol, each sender (Alice, Bob) can superimpose random numbers for QKD on classical information by taking advantage of the same weak coherent pulse and an untrusted third party (Charlie) decodes it by using the same coherent detectors, which could be appealing in practice due to that multiple purposes can be realized by employing only single communication system. What is more, the proposed protocol is MDI, which is immune to all possible side-channel attacks on practical detectors. Security results illustrate that the simultaneous MDI-CVQKD protocol can secure against arbitrary collective attacks. In addition, we employ phase-sensitive optical amplifiers to compensate the imperfection existing in practical detectors. With this technology, even common practical detectors can be used for detection through choosing a suitable optical amplifier gain. Furthermore, we also take the finite-size effect into consideration and show that the whole raw keys can be taken advantage of to generate the final secret key instead of sacrificing part of them for parameter estimation. Therefore, an enhanced performance of the simultaneous MDI-CVQKD protocol can be obtained in finite-size regime.
The measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (MDI-QKD) protocol is immune to imperfect measurement devices. However, its practicality and performance when implemented in continuous-variable (CV) mode are still not satisfactory. We propose a CV-MDI-QKD protocol based on modulated squeezed states, and analyze its security against two-mode Gaussian attack. The results show that the protocol can achieve a higher secret key rate and transmission distance than previous coherent-state and squeezed-state protocols. A method to compensate the imperfection of a practical homodyne detector using phase-sensitive optical amplifiers is also presented. By setting an appropriate optical amplification gain, realistic detectors with ordinary quantum efficiency can be employed. In addition, we discuss the impact of finite-size effects on the secret key rate of the protocol. The methods presented may aid in the practical application of the CV-MDI-QKD protocol.
We suggest a novel scheme for measurement-device-independent (MDI) continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CVQKD) by integrating plug-and-play (PP) configuration with dual-phase modulation (DPM). With these techniques, MDI-CVQKD system has the ability to overcome a number of impractical problems with no extra performance penalty. In particular, the synchronous loophole of different lasers from Alice and Bob can be elegantly eliminated in the plug-and-play configuration, which gives birth to the convenient implementation when comparing to the Gaussian-modulated coherent-state protocol. Moreover, All LO-aimed attacks can be well defended since the local oscillator (LO) is locally generated. By taking advantage of DPM, the performance degeneration caused by the practical polarization-sensitive amplitude modulator can be eliminated. We also derive the security bounds for the proposed scheme against optimal Gaussian collective attacks. By taking the finite-size effect into account, we show that almost all raw keys generated by the proposed scheme can be exploited for the final secret key generation so that the secret key rate can be increased without sacrificing a part of raw keys for parameter estimation. In addition, we give an experimental concept of the proposed scheme which can be deemed guideline for final implementation.
We propose a continuous-variable measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (CV-MDI QKD) protocol, in which detection is conducted by an untrusted third party. Our protocol can defend all detector side channels, which seriously threaten the security of a practical CV QKD system. Its security analysis against arbitrary collective attacks is derived based on the fact that the entanglement-based scheme of CV-MDI QKD is equivalent to the conventional CV QKD with coherent states and heterodyne detection. We find that the maximal total transmission distance is achieved by setting the untrusted third party close to one of the legitimate users. Furthermore, an alternate detection scheme, a special application of CV-MDI QKD, is proposed to enhance the security of the standard CV QKD system.
We have introduced, for the first time, a protocol for Continuous-Variable Measurement-Device-Independent Quantum Key Distribution (CV-MDI-QKD) in the terahertz (THz) frequency band. We have conducted a secret key rate analysis against collective attacks. The proposed THz CV-MDI-QKD is immune to all detector attacks, significantly enhancing the security assurance of practical THz CVQKD implementations. Furthermore, we investigated the impact of finite key length (the finite-size effect) and finite reconciliation efficiency on the performance of practical THz CV-MDI-QKD systems. Our findings reveal that by employing a large number of keys or signals and optimizing the modulation variance, the detrimental effects arising from the finite-size effect and suboptimal reconciliation efficiency can be notably mitigated. These insights play a crucial role in advancing the feasibility of THz CVQKD technology towards practical applications.
Measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (MDI-QKD) protocol was proposed to remove all the detector side channel attacks, while its security relies on the trusted encoding systems. Here we propose a one-sided MDI-QKD (1SMDI-QKD) protocol, which enjoys detection loophole-free advantage, and at the same time weakens the state preparation assumption in MDI-QKD. The 1SMDI-QKD can be regarded as a modified MDI-QKD, in which Bob's encoding system is trusted, while Alice's is uncharacterized. For the practical implementation, we also provide a scheme by utilizing coherent light source with an analytical two decoy state estimation method. Simulation with realistic experimental parameters shows that the protocol has a promising performance, and thus can be applied to practical QKD applications.
In the continuous variable measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (CV-MDI-QKD) protocol, both Alice and Bob send quantum states to an untrusted third party, Charlie, for detection through the quantum channel. In this paper, we mainly study the performance of the CV-MDI-QKD system using the noiseless linear amplifier (NLA). The NLA is added to the output of the detector at Charlie's side. The research results show that NLA can increase the communication distance and secret key rate of the CV-MDI-QKD protocol. Moreover, we find that the more powerful the improvement of the performance with the longer gain of NLA and the optimum gain is given under different conditions.