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IET conference proceedings.

QKD-secured and dynamic multi-tenant O-RAN 5G fronthaul with quantum and classical channels co-existence

Romerson Deiny Oliveira, R. Wang, E. Arabul, Sima Bahrani, Ruizhi Yang, Constantinos Vrontos, Shuangyi Yan, Reza Nejabati, Dimitra E. Simeonidou

Published Nov 13, 2023• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We reported a field trial of a dynamic QKD-protected optical network for O-RAN fronthaul with FPGA-based encryption. The coexistence of quantum and classical channels is enabled on deployed fibres with 609.05ns latency for one-way frame encryption and 2 kbps of key rate.
DOI
10.1049/icp.2023.2505

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A research contribution focusing on the Quantum Key Distribution (QKD)-enabled solutions assisting in the security framework of an optical 5G fronthaul segment is presented. We thoroughly investigate the integration of a BB84-QKD link, operating at telecom band, delivering quantum keys for the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)-256 encryption engines of a packetized fronthaul layer interconnecting multiple 5G terminal nodes. Secure Key Rate calculations are studied for both dedicated and shared fiber configurations to identify the attack surface of AES-encrypted data links in each deployment scenario. We also propose a converged fiber-wireless scenario, exploiting a mesh networking extension operated by mmWave wireless links. In addition to the quantum layer performance, emphasis is placed on the strict requirements of 5G-oriented optical edge segments, such as the latency and the availability of quantum keys. We find that for the dark fiber case, secret keys can be distilled at fiber lengths much longer than the maximum fiber fronthaul distance corresponding to the round-trip latency barrier, for both P2P and P2MP topologies. On the contrary, the inelastic Raman scattering makes the simultaneous transmission of quantum and classical signals much more challenging. To counteract the contamination of noise photons, a resilient classical/QKD coexistence scheme is adopted. Motivated by the recent advancements in quantum technology roadmap, our analysis aims to introduce the QKD blocks as a pillar of the quantum-safe security framework of the 5G/B5G-oriented fronthaul infrastructure.
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A quantum-secured packetized optical fronthaul segment is thoroughly discussed. We present an extensive study on the integration of a Discrete Variable-Quantum Key Distribution (DV-QKD) link supporting the Advanced Encryption Standard-256 (AES-256) encryption of packetized fronthaul operating at 10Gbps. Secure key rates exceeding the 1Kbps and short rotation times down to 1.4s are reported for Point-to-Point (P2P) topologies by considering the latency budget of 5G fronthaul connectivity. For the multi-user environment, the Bob stations implementation of quantum layer is adapted to satisfy the connectivity needs of Point-to-Multipoint (P2MP) scenario, allowing for successful distribution of AES-256 keys to N=16 5G terminal nodes with ultra-low attack success probabilities of less than 2-60.
This work demonstrates successful QKD/5G service coexistence over deployed X-Haul infrastructure, sharing10 Gb/s10 ~\text{Gb} / \mathrm{s}10 Gb/sclassical data and raw click rates of 4.3 kbps and 51.9 kbps over 22.6 km backhaul and 2.2 km fronthaul fiber links. ©2025 The Author(s)