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IET conference proceedings.

400G transmission of QKD-secured 100G data stream over 184 km SSMF through three QKD links and two trusted nodes

Erwan Pincemin, Paulette Gavignet, Fabrice Herviou, Yann Loussouarn, François Mondain, A. J. Grant, L. Johnson, Robert I. Woodward, J. F. Dynes, B. Summers, A. J. Shields, K. Taira, Hideaki Sato, R. Zink, V. Grempka, V. Castay, J. Zou

Published Nov 13, 2023• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report the transmission of a coherent 400-Gbps dual-polarization (DP) 16QAM channel that transport QKD-secured 100-GbE data stream with other fifty-four WDM channels at 100 Gbps over 184 km of SSMF through three QKD links and two trusted nodes.
DOI
10.1049/icp.2023.1917

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We report co-propagation experiments of the quantum channel (at 1310 nm) of a Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) system with Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) data channels in the 1550 nm range. Two configurations are assessed. The first one is a single span configuration where various lengths of Standard Single Mode Fiber (SSMF) (from 20 to 70 km) are used and the total WDM channels power is varied. The Secure Key Rate (SKR) and the Quantum Bit Error Ratio (QBER) are recorded showing that up to ∼17 dBm total power of 30 or 60 channels at 100 Gb/s can coexist with the quantum channel. A metric to evaluate the co-propagation efficiency is also proposed to better evaluate the ability of a QKD system to provide secure keys in a co-propagation regime. The second experiment is a three spans link with a cascade of three QKD systems and two trusted nodes in a 184 km total link length. We report the transmission of a coherent 400 Gb/s Dual Polarization DP-16QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) channel that transports a QKD secured 100 GbE data stream, with other fifty-four 100 Gb/s WDM channels. Encryption is demonstrated at the same time as co-propagation.