In the era of the interconnection of all things, the security of the Internet of Things (IoT) has become a new challenge. The theoretical basis of unconditional security can be guaranteed by using quantum keys, which can form a QKD network-based security protection system of quantum Internet of Things (Q-IoT). However, due to the low generation rate of the quantum keys, the lack of a reasonable key allocation scheme can reduce the overall service quality. Therefore, this paper proposes a dynamic on-demand key allocation scheme, named DDKA-QKDN, to better meet the requirements of lightweight in the application scenario of Q-IoT and make efficient use of quantum key resources. Taking the two processes of the quantum key pool (QKP) key allocation and the QKP key supplement into account, the scheme dynamically allocates quantum keys and supplements the QKP on demand, which quantitatively weighs the quantum key quantity and security requirements of key requests in proportion. The simulation results show that the system efficiency and the ability of QKP to provide key request services are significantly improved by this scheme.
In the era of the interconnection of all things, the security of the Internet of Things (IoT) has become a new challenge. The theoretical basis of unconditional security can be guaranteed by using quantum keys, which can form a QKD network-based security protection system of quantum Internet of Things (Q-IoT). However, due to the low generation rate of the quantum keys, the lack of a reasonable key allocation scheme can reduce the overall service quality. Therefore, this paper proposes a dynamic on-demand key allocation scheme, named DDKA-QKDN, to better meet the requirements of lightweight in the application scenario of Q-IoT and make efficient use of quantum key resources. Taking the two processes of the quantum key pool (QKP) key allocation and the QKP key supplement into account, the scheme dynamically allocates quantum keys and supplements the QKP on demand, which quantitatively weighs the quantum key quantity and security requirements of key requests in proportion. The simulation results show that the system efficiency and the ability of QKP to provide key request services are significantly improved by this scheme.
The security of the Internet of Things has emerged as a critical concern in the age of interconnectivity. Quantum computers pose a threat to the public key-based Rivest-Shamir Adleman methods currently utilized in encryption. Quantum keys, which can create a Quantum Key Distribution network based security protection system for the quantum Internet of Things, can theoretically provide unconditional security. Among these technologies, Continuous Variable Quantum Key Distribution is currently experiencing rapid and significant growth. This can be attributed to its capacity to support multiple channels and its ease of integration into current optical communication networks. However, the absence of an efficient key allocation system may waste the generation of quantum keys and decrease the overall quality of service. As a result, this paper proposes a Quantum Key Management scheme based on continuous variable Quantum source and application scenarios. The scheme allocates quantum keys from the quantum source. Quantitatively weights the security requirements of key requests in proportion to the quantum key. Our findings indicate that the system successfully manages the keys; however, excessive network traffic can overwhelm the system’s capabilities, leading to increased errors. This underscores the importance of optimizing traffic load to ensure reliable Continuous Variable Quantum Key Distribution
Quantum key distribution (QKD) is a symmetric key exchange mechanism designed to enhance the security of current communication systems. Although QKD provides unconditional security, it also comes with deployment challenges. One challenge is the distance limitation between the transmitter and receiver, which restricts the large-scale adoption of QKD. To overcome this, trusted relays are used as intermediate nodes, allowing QKD to evolve from distance-limited point-to-point connections to unlimited QKD networks (QKDN). With an increasing deployment of QKD and a growing number of applications requesting keys, quality of service (QoS) constraints must be set for efficient key resource management to alleviate the risk of rejecting application requests. In this work, we integrate key delivery delay and maximum requested key size as QoS constraints in a novel key allocation algorithm built on three QKDN layers – quantum, key management and service. Moreover, we design key relaying using quantum key pools and virtual quantum key pools as storage mechanisms. We use static and dynamic weights for relay path computation and evaluate their impact on the proposed key allocation strategies with QoS constraints and find that static weights show a good overall performance for QKDN, while performance with dynamic weights varies based on historical key consumption data.
Abstract With the rapid development of quantum communication technology, quantum key distribution (QKD) provides unconditional secure communication based on the principles of quantum mechanics. In the scenario of multi-service concurrency, it faces the challenges of dynamic resource allocation and complex network scheduling. The traditional key pool management mechanism has problems such as low key resource utilization and difficulty in coordinating multi-dimensional constraints in path optimization, which cannot meet the dynamically changing service quality requirements. This study proposes a quantum key pool architecture with dynamic resource management capabilities. The architecture adopts hierarchical key pool management and adds key recovery mechanism and key dynamic transfer function. For the path optimization problem under multiple constraints, the Lagrangian dual decomposition method is used to establish a mathematical model. The model considers multiple key factors such as bandwidth and delay, and designs an efficient heuristic algorithm to solve the optimal routing strategy. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm has good performance in terms of service request success rate, key resource utilization, key remaining rate, etc. This study provides a new idea for key distribution and resource allocation in quantum networks, which will help promote the further development of quantum communication technology.
Quantum key distribution (QKD) is experiencing a rapid increase of interest due to its security advantages in the face of quantum computers. However, typical QKD deployments are point-to-point and limited in terms of distance, which significantly restricts their utilization for end-user applications. To overcome these restrictions, trusted relays are adopted as intermediate nodes to allow the transition to QKD networks (QKDNs), where one of the hallmarks is the key management system. In this work, we investigate different key allocation strategies as a method to enhance the performance of key management systems in QKDN from the perspective of key allocation success rate and key delivery delay. We first describe an upgrade model from classical to QKDN at three distinct network layers—quantum, key management, and service. Then, we propose a novel, to our knowledge, key allocation strategy leveraging the benefits of key storage and relaying as a solution to improve the QKDN performance. To achieve this, our method makes use of end-to-end virtual quantum key pools (VQKPs) implemented between non-adjacent nodes requesting key material. We introduce static and dynamic upper and lower threshold limits at the VQKP level, with the dynamic thresholds adapted according to application demand, to control the key distribution in the network and fill the pools ahead of end-user requests. We demonstrate through simulations that the introduction of thresholds achieves performance enhancement and explain the trade-off between the key allocation success rate and key delivery delay evaluation metrics in comparison with different on-demand key allocation strategies.
With the advent of smart homes, smart cities, and smart everything, the Internet of Things (IoT) has emerged as an area of incredible impact, potential, and growth. Internet of Things date security remain a major challenge, in the current Internet of Things systems, a relatively easy method of data encryption is used to ensure the security of data transmission, which is commonly called lightweight cryptography. However, such method is at the risk of being cracked by quantum computers, which will contribute to many challenges specially related to privacy and security in IoT. As a result, the architecture of IoT needs to be re-designed considering the security challenges brought by quantum computers. On the other hand, Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) allows two users to share unconditionally secure keys. Unlike classical cryptosystems, the security of QKD is based on the fundamentals of quantum mechanics. This security of QKD is independent of computational complexity and will not be affected, no matter how much computing power the adversary has. This paper introduces a quantum key distribution enhanced Internet of Things architecture and proposes a residual-adaptive key provisioning scheme, which is evaluated in terms of key distribution success rate in the simulation.
As the foundation of quantum secure communication, the quantum key distribution (QKD) network is impossible to construct by using the operation mechanism of traditional networks. In the meantime, most of the existing QKD network routing schemes do not fit some specific quantum key practicality scenarios. Aiming at the special scenario of high concurrency and large differences in application requirements, we propose a new quantum key distribution network routing scheme based on application priority ranking (APR-QKDN). Firstly, the proposed APR-QKDN scheme comprehensively uses the application's priority, the total amount of key requirements, and the key update rate for prioritizing a large number of concurrent requests. The resource utilization and service efficiency of the network are improved by adjusting the processing order of requests. Secondly, the queuing strategy of the request comprehensively considers the current network resource situation. This means the same key request may adopt different evaluation strategies based on different network resource environments. Finally, the performance of the APR-QKDN routing scheme is compared with the existing schemes through simulation experiments. The results show that the success rate of application key requests of the APR-QKDN routing scheme is improved by at least 5% in the scenario of high concurrency.