Quantum communications can be conveniently implemented by two participants, but quantum secret key sharing (QSS) through multi-participant communication seems difficult in practice. In this paper, we propose a multi-participant QSS scheme with the local local oscillator (LLO) in continuous variable (CV) quantum communications. It allows an honest participant called a dealer to share a secret key with the others, making it possible to establish a secret key if and only if all participants gather together. The LLO scheme, which eliminates the need for the local oscillator (LO) to be propagated in insecure channels, can be used to avoid the potential LO attack in the traditional CVQSS scheme. Numerical simulation shows that the performance of the LLO-based CVQSS can be improved in terms of the maximal transmission distance even if it is performed with the partially trusted noise.
Quantum communications can be conveniently implemented by two participants, but quantum secret key sharing (QSS) through multi-participant communication seems difficult in practice. In this paper, we propose a multi-participant QSS scheme with the local local oscillator (LLO) in continuous variable (CV) quantum communications. It allows an honest participant called a dealer to share a secret key with the others, making it possible to establish a secret key if and only if all participants gather together. The LLO scheme, which eliminates the need for the local oscillator (LO) to be propagated in insecure channels, can be used to avoid the potential LO attack in the traditional CVQSS scheme. Numerical simulation shows that the performance of the LLO-based CVQSS can be improved in terms of the maximal transmission distance even if it is performed with the partially trusted noise.
Abstract Although continuous-variable quantum secret sharing (CVQSS) has been theoretically proven to be secure, it may still be vulnerable to various local oscillator (LO) attacks. To close this loophole, here we propose a practical CVQSS scheme using local LO (LLO-CVQSS), where LO is no longer generated by each user but is locally generated by the legitimate dealer. This waives the necessity that all LOs have to be transmitted through untrusted channels, making CVQSS system naturally immune to all LO-aimed attacks and enhancing its practical security. We also develop a dedicated phase compensation method for LLO-CVQSS to control the phase noise, and construct a noise model that derives its security bound against both eavesdroppers and dishonest users. Finally, numerical simulation shows that LLO-CVQSS can support 30 users at the same time and the maximal transmission distance reaches 112 km, revealing its potential for building large-scale practical quantum communication networks.
Free-space quantum cryptography holds significant potential for enabling global quantum communication networks. This paper proposes a free-space continuous-variable quantum secret sharing (CV-QSS) protocol employing a local local oscillator (LLO). The proposed protocol simplifies the system architecture by requiring only two heterodyne detections at the dealer’s side, thereby eliminating the additional noise and complexity associated with coherent measurements at each participant’s side in conventional schemes. Theoretically, we establish a channel transmittance model that comprehensively incorporates the effects of rain extinction and atmospheric turbulence, and derive the bound of the secret key rate. Experimentally, we systematically evaluate the impact of weather conditions and atmospheric turbulence on protocol performance and conduct comparative evaluations against existing schemes. The results demonstrate that the proposed protocol outperforms the previously proposed free-space LLO-based CV-QSS protocol in terms of key rate, transmission distance, noise tolerance, and participant capacity. Furthermore, this protocol supports secret sharing among 5 participants over 75 km or up to 37 participants within 10 km, outperforming the LLO-based CV-QSS system in a fiber channel. This study validates the potential of free-space CV-QSS as a viable solution for medium-to-long-distance and multi-user quantum secret sharing.
Continuous-variable quantum secret sharing (CVQSS) allows a legitimate user, i.e., the dealer, to share a string of secret keys with multiple distant users. These users cannot individually recover the dealer's secret key unless they work cooperatively. Although the theoretical security proof of CVQSS has been well established, its practical security and implementation still face challenges. In this paper, we suggest a practical scheme for CVQSS using plug-and-play (P&P) configuration and dual-phase-modulated coherent state (DPMCS). The proposed scheme, called P&P DPM-based CVQSS, waives the necessity that each user has to prepare respective coherent states with their own lasers, thereby eliminating synchronous loopholes caused by different lasers and reducing the complexity of deployment of the user's stations. Moreover, the local oscillator (LO) can be generated locally by the dealer so that the whole CVQSS system could be naturally immune to all LO-aimed attacks. We derive the security bounds for P&P DPM-based CVQSS by properly making most of the existing security analysis techniques of continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CVQKD). In addition, an experimental concept of P&P DPM-based CVQSS is also presented, which can be deemed a guideline for future implementation.
The dishonest participants have many advantages to gain others’ shares by cheating in quantum secret sharing (QSS) protocols. However, the traditional methods such as identity authentication and message authentication can not resolve this problem due to the reason that the share has already been released to dishonest participants before realizing the deception. In this paper, a continuous variable QSS (CVQSS) scheme is proposed with fairness which ensures all participants can acquire or can not acquire the secret simultaneously. The quantum channel based on two-mode squeezing states provides secure communications through which it can send shares successfully, as long as setting the squeezing and modulation parameters according to the quantum channel transmission efficiency and the Shannon information of shares. In addition, the Chinese Remainder Theorem (CRT) can provides tunable threshold structures according to demands of the complex quantum network and the strategy for fairness can be incorporated with other sharing schemes, resulting in perfect compatibility for practical implementations.
In a practical continuous-variable quantum secret sharing system, the local oscillator transmitted via an insecure channel may be subjected to security threats due to various targeted attacks. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a continuous-variable quantum secret sharing scheme with local intrinsic oscillator, in which the intrinsic oscillator is generated locally at the trusted end without being sent by each user, thus completely plugging the relevant security loopholes. The scheme consists of three stages: preparation, where users generate Gaussian-modulated coherent states and reference signals; measurement, where the dealer performs heterodyne detection by using the local intrinsic oscillator and reference phases; post-processing, which involves parameter estimation, phase compensation, and secure key extraction. On this basis, Kalman filter (KF) is utilized to estimate the minimum mean square error for each reference phase separately, reducing the phase drift estimation error and suppressing the phase measurement noise. Phase compensation methods for scalar KF and vector KF are developed respectively, where scalar KF requires additional block averaging for slow phase drift, while vector KF simultaneously models fast and slow drifts, enabling one-step compensation with minimized estimation errors. The excess noise of the filtered system including modulation noise, phase noise, photon leakage noise, and ADC quantization noise is modeled, with KF reducing phase measurement noise via dynamic gain optimization. Security bound against eavesdroppers and dishonest users is derived. Numerical simulations under practical parameters demonstrate significant improvements: vector KF achieves a maximum transmission distance of 82.6 km (vs. 67.3 km for block averaging) and supports 33 users (vs. 22), with excess noise reduced by 40% at 60 km. The scheme’s robustness is further validated under varying reference signal amplitudes, showing stable performance even at lower levels, minimizing interference with quantum signals. These results highlight that the proposed scheme has significant advantages in terms of maximum transmission distance and maximum number of supported users, and has the potential to build adaptive KF algorithms for dynamic user scenarios and quantum machine learning integration.
Point-to-point quantum privacy communication over a standard telecommunication fiber link can be implemented by continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CV QKD). However, as communication networks develop, the two-party CV QKD system may hardly meet the requirements of secret key sharing of multiple users (at least three users). In this paper, we consider a protocol called quantum secret sharing (QSS) which allows a legitimate user, a so-called dealer, to share a secret key with multiple remote users through an insecure quantum channel. These users can correctly recover the dealer's secret key only when they work cooperatively. We carry out QSS with discretely modulated coherent states (DMCSs) because they are easy to prepare and resilient to losses. An asymptotic security proof for the proposed DMCS-based QSS protocol against both eavesdroppers and dishonest users is presented. Numerical simulation based on a linear bosonic channel shows that the maximal transmission distance of the DMCS-based QSS protocol reaches more than 100 km, and it can be further lengthened by exploiting a higher-dimensional discrete modulation strategy. Moreover, the composable security of the DMCS-based QSS protocol is also presented.