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International Conference on Pulsed Lasers and Laser Applications (AMPL)

Wireless underwater optical communication with quantum key distribution

Pavel A. Titovets, Sergey Yu. Kazantsev, N. E. Miroshnikova, Alexander Podgorny

Published Dec 2, 2021• 12 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The results of experimental modeling of a wireless optical communication channel in an aquatic environment are presented, which were carried out on the basis of a laboratory installation for underwater communication, developed at MTUCI. The possibility of creating cheap and compact optical communication systems for high-speed data transmission at distances up to 100 m has been demonstrated. The necessity of using the technology of quantum key distribution for information security is shown. The key elements required for the implementation of the quantum distribution of cryptographic keys in the ocean are analyzed.

DOI
10.1117/12.2601666

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•Jun 20, 2025•0 citations
The results of experimental modeling of a wireless optical communication channel in an aquatic environment are presented, which were carried out on the basis of a laboratory installation for underwater communication, developed at MTUCI. The possibility of creating cheap and compact optical communication systems for high-speed data transmission at distances up to 100 m has been demonstrated. The necessity of using the technology of quantum key distribution for information security is shown. The key elements required for the implementation of the quantum distribution of cryptographic keys in the ocean are analyzed.
The research aims to develop an attack-free underwater optical communication channel at a distance of 50 meters. In this work, we have emphasized the importance of Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) in Naval and many other applications. An in-detail study of the Benette Brassard QKD protocol proposed in 1984 [BB84] is done with its implementation. Then as the next step, we analyzed the drawbacks of BB84 and the necessity of QKD in Underwater Optical Wireless Sensor Networks [UO-WSN]. As a solution, to identified problems, we have proposed the Enhanced BB84 protocol (EBB84) with considerations of its usage in the UO-WSN. The results showed that the EBB84 algorithm is best suitable algorithm for the underwater environment.
In this work we study the underwater optical channel, making a feasibility analysis on the development of a high-speed communication system with security guaranteed by Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) protocol. In particular, we introduce a new model for the attenuation of the underwater medium which includes the effect of turbulence within the marine environment.We report the performance of the system focusing on the most important figures of merit, such as the secret key rate of the quantum channel and the bit rate of the classical channel at the physical layer as a function of the total link range. We carried out these analyses depending on various environmental conditions, such as the geographical area, depth, path-loss and turbulence models. The communication protocols considered are the BB84 with time-bin encoding for QKD and baseband On-Off Keying (OOK) modulation for classical data communication for a maximum link range of 100 meters.
Polarization encoding quantum key distribution has been proven to be a reliable method to build a secure communication system. It has already been used in an inter-city fiber channel and near-Earth atmosphere channel, leaving an underwater channel the last barrier to conquer. Here we demonstrate a decoy-state BB84 quantum key distribution system over a water channel with a compact system design for future experiments in the ocean. In the system, a multiple-intensity modulated laser module is designed to produce the light pulses of quantum states, including signal state, decoy state, and vacuum state. Classical communication and synchronization are realized by wireless optical transmission. Multiple filtering techniques and wavelength division multiplexing are further used to avoid cross talk of different lights. We test the performance of the system and obtain a final key rate of 245.6 bps with an average quantum bit error rate of 1.91% over a 2.4 m water channel, in which the channel attenuation is 16.35 dB. Numerical simulation shows that the system can tolerate up to 21.7 dB total channel loss and can still generate secure keys in 277.9 m Jerlov type I ocean channel.
Focusing on the application scenario where the underwater mobile platforms wirelessly access the cabled underwater information networks to achieve communication, an underwater access scheme for measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution is proposed to ensure communication security. Based on the analysis of the optical characteristics of the seawater channel, an underwater access model of measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution is constructed, simulated and analyzed to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the scheme. The simulation results show that the maximum secure access distance of the scheme (under extreme conditions) can be extended from 147 meters to 230 meters or even 451 meters as the seawater type changes from turbid seawater to moderately turbid seawater to clear seawater. The vacuum + weak decoy state scheme can obtain performance that is very close to this limit. After considering the effect of finite data-set size, the performance of the scheme is reduced, but it can still meet the application requirements of underwater mobile platform access within a certain range. In practical applications, measures such as deploying wired communication buoys at network nodes can be used to further expand the effective access range.
We experimentally demonstrated the feasibility of an underwater continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CV-QKD) system based on four-state protocol, which is promising to guarantee the unconditionally secure underwater wireless optical communication. CV-QKD parameter estimation is performed after transmitting quantum coherent signal from Alice to Bob through a water tank. The secure key rate under collective attack of the demonstrated CV-QKD system is estimated as 22.9 kbits/s at a channel loss of 12.4 dB. In addition, the performance is also investigated with various water types and the maximum underwater transmission distance of the demonstrated CV-QKD system is estimated as 148.7 m in the pure sea water.
The increasing reliance on optical communication networks for high-speed data transmission has amplified concerns regarding secure information exchange in the era of quantum computing. Classical cryptographic protocols such as RSA and ECC, though widely deployed, are vulnerable to attacks from large-scale quantum computers executing Shor’s algorithm. Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) has emerged as a revolutionary cryptographic paradigm that leverages the principles of quantum mechanics to enable theoretically unbreakable key exchange. This paper investigates the integration of QKD into optical communication networks, focusing on protocol design, implementation challenges, and potential scalability. Through scenario-based evaluation, the study highlights the trade-offs between quantum security and practical deployment constraints such as channel loss, photon detector efficiency, and key generation rates. Results from simulated models demonstrate that while QKD can achieve provable security in metropolitan-area networks, long-distance transmission requires advanced techniques such as quantum repeaters and trusted nodes. This work concludes that QKD offers a promising pathway toward quantum-safe communication but necessitates