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Quantum Information Processing

The performance of satellite-based mode-pairing quantum key distribution

Yang Chen, Lu Wang, Rongzhen Jiao

Published Mar 12, 2025• 3 citations
Publisher
DOI
10.1007/s11128-025-04706-9

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This study investigates the performance of mode-pairing quantum key distribution (MP-QKD) over satellite-to-ground free-space channels. A nonuniform atmospheric transmission model is adopted to characterize key loss mechanisms, including turbulence, aerosol scattering, solar interference, and platform-induced beam jitter. Numerical simulations quantify the secret key rate under varying zenith angles and environmental conditions. Results show that increasing zenith angle significantly degrades the key rate because the longer optical path aggravates propagation loss and atmospheric impairment. Under identical atmospheric conditions, nighttime achieves a higher key rate than daytime, mainly because negligible solar interference leads to lower background-photon counts and a reduced QBER. Within the present simplified model, increasing the maximum pairing interval l improves the key rate, although the gain gradually saturates. These findings provide a performance evaluation of MP-QKD in a representative satellite-to-ground free-space configuration and offer practical guidance for parameter selection, environmental-sensitivity analysis, and robust system design.
Satellite-based optical communication enables quantum key distribution (QKD) on global scales, with realistic near-term architectures usually considering prepare-and-measure protocols that employ satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) acting as trusted nodes. One major challenge is constituted by the high loss in the free-space link from the satellite to the optical ground station (OGS) due to the large distances involved. If the quantum signal is directly forwarded from the OGS to an end-user via a ground-based fiber connection, the additional losses limit the key generation to the vicinity of a few kilometers. For longer-distance links, instead, the OGS would have to act as another trusted node to relay the key, introducing a severe bottleneck in the practical security. Here we consider an alternative solution based on the use of Mode-Pairing (MP) QKD, employing the OGS as an untrusted intermediate node. Due to its improved scaling of the key rate with the channel transmission, MP QKD allows end-users up to hundreds of kilometers around the OGS to establish a secure key with the satellite, without having to trust the OGS provider. We discuss the effect of Doppler shifts on the performance of MP QKD and propose a possible implementation to mitigate its impact with sufficient precision.
This paper presents a method for performance evaluation of quantum key distribution (QKD) based on satellites using thetrusted node repeater strategy. Evaluation is focused on low Earth orbits satellites to illustrate the effective secure key distribution to remote terrestrial nodes. QKD generates the secure key material at link level (satellite and ground station point-to-point connection), whose performance evaluation is already covered in several studies. In this work we focus on a second evaluation level corresponding to the secure key effectively distributed to the remote terrestrial nodes. This corresponds to the performance of key-relay capacity per pair of distant ground nodes willing to connect securely. Here the satellite acts as a flying trusted node, performing a public-XOR-key scheme: the composition of xored key material is produced on the satellite and published to the remote pair of ground QKD nodes to obtain the other side QKD key. Key-relay capacity is tied to the rate generation at link level but also depends on other parameters, such as differences in key rate generation per QKD segment, the chosen strategy of generation and distribution of composed key material, or the satellite and terrestrial network topology (e.g. number and localization of nodes). These different aspects condition and may lower the secret key material effectively distributed remotely. Then, a model for generation and distribution of keys is described and implemented in a simulation tool, allowing the understanding of the system and its performance evaluation under different circumstances. Results confirm the key-relay performance per node is upbounded by twice the generation at link level, and how different aspects may lower it.