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IEEE Communications Letters

An Efficient Semi-Quantum Key Distribution Protocol and Its Security Proof

Chong‐Qiang Ye, Jian Li, Xiu‐Bo Chen, Yuan Tian, Yanyan Hou

Published Mar 11, 2022• 18 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The idea of semi-quantum communication protocols provides a theoretical solution for the high costs of quantum resources. In this study, we propose an efficient semi-quantum key distribution protocol that allows Alice and quantum-capable restricted Bob to establish a secure key. Then, we demonstrate that the protocol is information-theoretic secure in the asymptotic scenario. As long as the channel noise is less than the noise tolerance of the protocol, Alice and Bob can withdraw a secure key. The proposed protocol has advantages over previous protocols regarding qubit efficiency and communication cost. Besides, our efficiency analysis is more fair and practical because noise factors are taken into account. Based on these features, it may have potential applications in future quantum communications.

DOI
10.1109/lcomm.2022.3158906

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The idea of semi-quantum communication protocols provides a theoretical solution for the high costs of quantum resources. In this study, we propose an efficient semi-quantum key distribution protocol that allows Alice and quantum-capable restricted Bob to establish a secure key. Then, we demonstrate that the protocol is information-theoretic secure in the asymptotic scenario. As long as the channel noise is less than the noise tolerance of the protocol, Alice and Bob can withdraw a secure key. The proposed protocol has advantages over previous protocols regarding qubit efficiency and communication cost. Besides, our efficiency analysis is more fair and practical because noise factors are taken into account. Based on these features, it may have potential applications in future quantum communications.
Semi-quantum key distribution (SQKD) can share secret keys by using less quantum resource than its fully quantum counterparts, and this likely makes SQKD become more practical and realizable. In this paper, we present a new SQKD protocol by introducing the idea of B92 into semi-quantum key distribution and prove its unconditional security. In this protocol, the sender Alice just sends one qubit to the classical Bob and Bob just prepares one state in the preparation process. Indeed the classical user's measurement is not necessary either. This protocol can reduce some quantum communication and make it easier to be implemented. It can be seen as the semi-quantum version of B92 protocol, comparing to the protocol BKM2007 as the semi-quantum version of BB84 in fully quantum cryptography. We verify it has higher key rate and therefore is more efficient. Specifically we prove it is unconditionally secure by computing a lower bound of the key rate in the asymptotic scenario from information theory aspect. Then we can find a threshold value of errors such that for all error rates less than this value, the secure key can be established between the legitimate users definitely. We make an illustration of how to compute the threshold value in case of the reverse channel is a depolarizing one with parameter ppp. Though the threshold value is a little smaller than those of some existed SQKD protocols, it can be comparable to the B92 protocol in fully quantum cryptography.
Unconditionally secure key distribution is impossible using classical communication only. However, by providing Alice and Bob with quantum capable hardware the task becomes possible. How quantum does a protocol need to be, though, in order to gain this advantage? In 2007, Boyer et al., proposed "semi-quantum key distribution" where only Alice need be quantum while Bob need only limited classical" capabilities. Several protocols were proposed and proven secure in the perfect qubit scenario" but not necessarily against realistic attacks (with one exception being recently published in (PRA 96 062335)). In this paper, we devise a new SQKD protocol and analyze its security against certain practical attacks.
Abstract Mediated semi-quantum key distribution involves the use of two end-users who have very restricted, almost classical, capabilities, who wish to establish a shared secret key using the help of a fully-quantum server who may be adversarial. In this paper, we introduce a new mediated semi-quantum key distribution protocol, extending prior work, which has asymptotically perfect efficiency. Though this comes at the cost of decreased noise tolerance, our protocol is backwards compatible with prior work, so users may easily switch to the old (normally less efficient) protocol if the noise level is high enough to justify it. To prove security, we show an interesting reduction from the mediated semi-quantum scenario to a fully-quantum entanglement based protocol which may be useful when proving the security of other multi-user quantum key distribution protocols.
Semi-quantum key distribution protocols are designed to allow two users to establish a secure secret key when one of the two users is limited to performing certain "classical" operations. There have been several such protocols developed recently, however, due to their reliance on a two-way quantum communication channel (and thus, the attacker's opportunity to interact with the qubit twice), their security analysis is difficult and little is known concerning how secure they are compared to their fully quantum counterparts. In this paper we prove the unconditional security of a particular semi-quantum protocol. We derive an expression for the key rate of this protocol, in the asymptotic scenario, as a function of the quantum channel's noise. Finally, we will show that this semi-quantum protocol can tolerate a maximal noise level comparable to certain fully quantum protocols.
Semiquantum key distribution protocols are designed to allow two parties to establish a shared secret key, secure against an all-powerful adversary, even when one of the users is restricted to measuring and preparing quantum states in one single basis. While interesting from a theoretical standpoint, these protocols have the disadvantage that a two-way quantum communication channel is necessary which generally limits their theoretical efficiency and noise tolerance. In this paper, we construct a semiquantum key distribution (SQKD) protocol which actually takes advantage of this necessary two-way channel, and, after performing an information theoretic security analysis against collective attacks, we show it is able to tolerate a channel noise level higher than any prior SQKD protocol to date. We also compare the noise tolerance of our protocol to other two-way fully quantum protocols, along with BB84 with classical advantage distillation. We also comment on some practical issues involving semiquantum key distribution (in particular, concerning the potential complexity in physical implementation of our protocol as compared with other standard QKD protocols). Finally, we develop techniques that can be applied to the security analysis of other (S)QKD protocols reliant on a two-way quantum communication channel.
Quantum key distribution cannot satisfy some users without quantum capability, so semi-quantum key distribution emerges as the times required. Semi-quantum key distribution protocol is described as Alice has quantum ability to prepare and measure qubits with an arbitrary basis, while Bob only measures qubits with the computational basis or reflects qubits to Alice. However, most existing semi-quantum key distribution protocols have been performed with low eavesdropping detection probability. In this paper, we present an innovative semi-quantum key distribution protocol with high efficiency based on EPR and single-particle hybridization, in which the specific contents of {\scriptsize CTRL} or {\scriptsize SIFT} operations have been newly defined. Then, the security analysis indicates the proposed protocol is asymptotically secure with more high eavesdropping detection probability against individual eavesdropping attacks. Moreover, the efficiency analysis shows that the presented protocol is more efficient than similar literatures.