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Optics Letters

Boosting the performance of loss-tolerant measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution

Hua-Jian Ding, Xiao Ma, Jing-Yang Liu, Chunhui Zhang, Xingyu Zhou, Qin Wang

Published Apr 24, 2023• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution can remove all possible detector side channels, and is robust against state preparation flaws when further combined with the loss-tolerant method. However, the secure key rate in this scenario is relatively low, thus hindering its practical application. Here, we first present a four-intensity decoy-state protocol where the signal intensity is modulated only in Z basis for key generation while the decoy intensities are modulated in both Z and X bases for parameter estimation. Moreover, we adopt collective constraint and joint-study strategy in statistical fluctuation analysis. We have also experimentally demonstrated this protocol and the result indicates high performance and good security for practical applications.

DOI
10.1364/ol.489039

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Measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution can remove all possible detector side channels, and is robust against state preparation flaws when further combined with the loss-tolerant method. However, the secure key rate in this scenario is relatively low, thus hindering its practical application. Here, we first present a four-intensity decoy-state protocol where the signal intensity is modulated only in Z basis for key generation while the decoy intensities are modulated in both Z and X bases for parameter estimation. Moreover, we adopt collective constraint and joint-study strategy in statistical fluctuation analysis. We have also experimentally demonstrated this protocol and the result indicates high performance and good security for practical applications.
Measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution is immune from all the detection attacks, thus when it is combined with the decoy state method, the final key is unconditional secure. In this paper, the performance of three-intensity decoy state measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution at an asymmetric channel transmittance efficiency is considered and compared with each other at the symmetric choice scenario. Simulation result shows that the key rate at the symmetric scenario can tolerate 62 dB channel loss, otherwise when the distance ratio changes, the tolerated channel loss will decrease to 37 dB and 19 dB. A method to choose the optimal intensity is proposed for asymmetric channel transmittance regardless of distance ratio, which can be easily adapted to practical experimental settings.
Measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (MDIQKD) is a revolutionary protocol since it is physically immune to all attacks on the detection side. However, the protocol still keeps the strict assumptions on the source side that specify that the four BB84 states must be perfectly prepared to ensure security. Some protocols release part of the assumptions in the encoding system to keep the practical security, but the performance would be dramatically reduced. In this work, we present a MDIQKD protocol that requires less knowledge of the encoding system to combat the troublesome modulation errors and fluctuations. We have also experimentally demonstrated the protocol. The result indicates a high performance and good security for practical applications. Its robustness and flexibility also exhibit a good value for complex scenarios such as the QKD networks.
Measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (MDI-QKD) with the active decoy state method can remove all detector loopholes, and resist the imperfections of sources. But it may lead to side channel attacks and break the security of QKD system. In this paper, we apply the passive decoy state method to the MDI-QKD based on polarization encoding mode. Not only all attacks on detectors can be removed, but also the side channel attacks on sources can be overcome. We get that the MDI-QKD with our passive decoy state method can have a performance comparable to the protocol with the active decoy state method. To fit for the demand of practical application, we discuss intensity fluctuation in the security analysis of MDI-QKD protocol using passive decoy state method, and derive the key generation rate for our protocol with intensity fluctuation. It shows that intensity fluctuation has an adverse effect on the key generation rate which is non-negligible, especially in the case of small data size of total transmitting signals and long distance transmission. We give specific simulations on the relationship between intensity fluctuation and the key generation rate. Furthermore, the statistical fluctuation due to the finite length of data is also taken into account.
Reference-frame-independent measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (RFI-MDI-QKD) is a novel protocol that eliminates all possible attacks on the detector side and the necessity of reference-frame alignment in source sides. However, its performance may degrade notably due to statistical fluctuations since more parameters, e.g., yields and error rates for mismatched-basis events, must be accumulated to monitor the security. In this work, we find that the original decoy states method estimates these yields overpessimistically since it ignores the potential relations between different bases. Through jointly processing parameters of different bases, the performance of RFI-MDI-QKD is greatly improved in terms of the secret key rate and achievable distance when statistical fluctuations are considered (the statistical fluctuation analysis is the first step to the final analysis of the finite key size effect). Our results pave an avenue towards practical RFI-MDI-QKD.
Measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (MDI-QKD) can remove all detector loopholes. When it is combined with the decoy-state method, the final key is unconditionally secure, even if Alice and Bob do not have strict single-photon sources. However, active modulation of source intensity, which is used to generate the decoy state, may leave side channels and leak additional information to Eve. In this paper, we consider the MDI-QKD with a passive decoy state, in which both Alice and Bob send pulses to an untrusted third party, Charlie. Then, in order to estimate the key generation rate, we derive two tight formulas to estimate the lower bound of the yield and the upper bound of the error rate that both Alice and Bob send a single-photon pulse to Charlie. Furthermore, the statistical fluctuation due to the finite length of data is also taken into account based on the standard statistical analysis.
Recently Zhang et al [ Phys. Rev. A95, 012333 (2017)] developed a new approach to estimate the failure probability for the decoy-state BB84 QKD system when taking finite-size key effect into account, which offers security comparable to Chernoff bound, while results in an improved key rate and transmission distance. Based on Zhang et al's work, now we extend this approach to the case of the measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (MDI-QKD), and for the first time implement it onto the four-intensity decoy-state MDI-QKD system. Moreover, through utilizing joint constraints and collective error-estimation techniques, we can obviously increase the performance of practical MDI-QKD systems compared with either three- or four-intensity decoy-state MDI-QKD using Chernoff bound analysis, and achieve much higher level security compared with those applying Gaussian approximation analysis.