Quantum Secure Direct Communication (QSDC) is a promising approach for secure information exchange. This paper proposes an efficient and secure four-party QSDC scheme utilizing hyperentangled Bell states in the polarization degree of freedom, the first longitudinal momentum degree of freedom and the second longitudinal momentum degree of freedom. The four participants can perform different unitary operations to independently encode their secret messages onto photons in three degrees of freedom, subsequently transmitting them directly through the quantum channel. In this proposed protocol, each degree of freedom of the photon can effectively carry two bits of information. Each round of transmission by a photon enables the four legitimate participants to obtain six classical bits of information. Notably, when compared to other photons based single-degree-of-freedom QSDC network protocols, the capacity of proposed QSDC protocol is tripled. Therefore, it significantly enhances the information transmission capability. Furthermore, comprehensive security analysis shows that our QSDC network protocol can withstand various attacks from external eavesdroppers.
Quantum Secure Direct Communication (QSDC) is a promising approach for secure information exchange. This paper proposes an efficient and secure four-party QSDC scheme utilizing hyperentangled Bell states in the polarization degree of freedom, the first longitudinal momentum degree of freedom and the second longitudinal momentum degree of freedom. The four participants can perform different unitary operations to independently encode their secret messages onto photons in three degrees of freedom, subsequently transmitting them directly through the quantum channel. In this proposed protocol, each degree of freedom of the photon can effectively carry two bits of information. Each round of transmission by a photon enables the four legitimate participants to obtain six classical bits of information. Notably, when compared to other photons based single-degree-of-freedom QSDC network protocols, the capacity of proposed QSDC protocol is tripled. Therefore, it significantly enhances the information transmission capability. Furthermore, comprehensive security analysis shows that our QSDC network protocol can withstand various attacks from external eavesdroppers.
Abstract Quantum secure direct communication (QSDC) enables the direct transmission of secret messages without prior sharing of keys among the communicating parties. However, in practical situations, an eavesdropper can compromise the measurement device and potentially steal secret messages. To enhance the reliability of QSDC systems, measurement-device-independent (MDI) QSDC protocols have been developed. In this paper, we propose a high-capacity MDI-QSDC protocol with authentication by utilizing hyperentangled Bell states. The protocol allows the sender to transmit six classical bit messages to the receiver using one quantum state. Our protocol has a higher coding capacity compared to other MDI-QSDC protocols. Additionally, we achieve mutual authentication of the identities of the communicating parties, and our scheme has significant advantages over the traditional QSDC protocols, where the legitimacy of the communicating parties has to be assumed. Theoretical analysis proves that our protocol can effectively defend against common attacks.
Abstract Quantum secure direct communication (QSDC) enables the direct transmission of secret messages without prior sharing of keys among the communicating parties. However, in practical situations, an eavesdropper can compromise the measurement device and potentially steal secret messages. To enhance the reliability of QSDC systems, measurement-device-independent (MDI) QSDC protocols have been developed. In this paper, we propose a high-capacity MDI-QSDC protocol with authentication by utilizing hyperentangled Bell states. The protocol allows the sender to transmit six classical bit messages to the receiver using one quantum state. Our protocol has a higher coding capacity compared to other MDI-QSDC protocols. Additionally, we achieve mutual authentication of the identities of the communicating parties, and our scheme has significant advantages over the traditional QSDC protocols, where the legitimacy of the communicating parties has to be assumed. Theoretical analysis proves that our protocol can effectively defend against common attacks.
Quantum secure direct communication (QSDC) is one of the most important branches of quantum communication. In contrast to the quantum key distribution (QKD) which distributes a secure key between distant parties, QSDC directly transmits secret message instead of sharing key in advance. To establish a secure QSDC protocol, on the one hand, the security of the quantum channel should be confirmed before the exchange of the secret message. On the other hand, the quantum state should be transmitted in a quantum data block since the security of QSDC is based on the error rate analysis in the theories on statistics. Compared with the deterministic quantum key distribution (DQKD) which can also be used to transmit deterministic information, QSDC schemes do not need extra classical bits to read the secret message except for public discussion. In this article, we introduce the basic principles of QSDC and review the development in this field by introducing typical QSDC protocols chronologically. The first QSDC protocol was proposed by Long and Liu, which can be used to establish a common key between distant parties. In their scheme, the method for transmitting quantum states in a block by block way and in multiple steps was proposed and the information leakage before eavesdropping detection was solved. Subsequently, Deng et al. presented two pioneering QSDC schemes, an entangled-state-based two-step QSDC scheme and a single-photon-state-based quantum one-time pad scheme, in which the basic principle and criteria for QSDC were pointed out. From then on, many interesting QSDC schemes have been proposed, including the high-dimension QSDC scheme based on quantum superdense coding, multi-step QSDC scheme based on Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states, QSDC scheme based on quantum encryption with practical non-maximally entangled quantum channel, and so on. We also introduce the anti-noise QSDC schemes which were designed for coping with the collective-dephasing noise and the collective-rotation noise, respectively. In 2011, Wang et al. presented the first QSDC which exploited the hyperentangled state as the information carrier and several QSDC schemes based on the spatial degree of freedom (DOF) of photon, single-photon multi-DOF state and hyperentanglement were proposed subsequently. In addition to the point-to-point QSDC schemes, we also review the QSDC networks. Finally, a perspective of QSDC research is given in the last section.
In this paper, we propose a new controlled quantum secure direct communication (CQSDC) protocol with single photons in both polarization and spatial-mode degrees of freedom. Based on the defined local collective unitary operations, the sender’s secret messages can be transmitted directly to the receiver through encoding secret messages on the particles. Only with the help of the third side, the receiver can reconstruct the secret messages. Each single photon in two degrees of freedom can carry two bits of information, so the cost of our protocol is less than others using entangled qubits. Moreover, the security of our QSDC network protocol is discussed comprehensively. It is shown that our new CQSDC protocol cannot only defend the outsider eavesdroppers’ several sorts of attacks but also the inside attacks. Besides, our protocol is feasible since the preparation and the measurement of single photon quantum states in both the polarization and the spatial-mode degrees of freedom are available with current quantum techniques.
Quantum secure direct communication (QSDC) is a powerful technique of transmitting confidential information directly and securely based on the pre-established secure quantum channel and block transmission. Here we propose an efficient QSDC protocol using the complete Bell-state measurement (CBSM) resorting to linear optical elements and temporal-polarization hyperentanglement. In this protocol, the polarized entangled photons are utilized as the information carrier, and all the detection events of CBSM can be identified with common single-photon detectors instead of photon number resolving detectors due to the introduction of temporal degree of freedom (DOF). Moreover, since all the two-photon detection events in CBSM are effective and can be preserved with the efficiency of 100% rather than 50% in the previous QSDC, the quantum efficiency of QSDC can be doubled by encoding more messages on entangled photon pairs.
Quantum secure direct communication (QSDC) can transmit secret messages directly from one user to another without first establishing a shared secret key, which is different from quantum key distribution. In this paper, we propose a novel quantum secure direct communication protocol based on signal photons and Bell states. Before the execution of the proposed protocol, two participants Alice and Bob exchange their corresponding identity IDA and IDB through quantum key distribution and keep them secret, respectively. Then the message sender, Alice, encodes each secret message bit into two single photons (| 01〉or|10〉) or a Bell state , and composes an ordered secret message sequence. To insure the security of communication, Alice also prepares the decoy photons and inserts them into secret message sequence on the basis of the values of IDA and IDB. By the secret identity IDA and IDB, both sides of the communication can check eavesdropping and identify each other. The proposed protocol not only completes secure direct communication, but also realizes the mutual authentication. The security analysis of the proposed protocol is presented in the paper. The analysis results show that this protocol is secure against some common attacks, and no secret message leaks even if the messages are broken. Compared with the two-way QSDC protocols, the presented protocol is a one-way quantum communication protocol which has the immunity to Trojan horse attack. Furthermore, our proposed protocol can be realized without quantum memory.