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International Conference on Quantum Communications, Networking, and Computing (QCNC)

Enabling oblivious key on a quantum network in QuantaGENOMICS project

Juan José Romero, Rafael J. Vicente, Juan Pablo Brito, Vicente Martín, Laura Ortíz

Published Mar 31, 2025• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Protocols going beyond distributing symmetric keys are drawing attention recently. In this work, we present a software adapter to enable a key management system designed for quantum key distribution to receive and make use of oblivious keys that yields to secure multiparty computation. This software adapter conforms the first approach taken in the QuantaGE-NOMICS project to address the problems of integrating oblivious key on the MadQCI UPM sofware-defined quantum network.

DOI
10.1109/qcnc64685.2025.00050

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Protocols going beyond distributing symmetric keys are drawing attention recently. In this work, we present a software adapter to enable a key management system designed for quantum key distribution to receive and make use of oblivious keys that yields to secure multiparty computation. This software adapter conforms the first approach taken in the QuantaGE-NOMICS project to address the problems of integrating oblivious key on the MadQCI UPM sofware-defined quantum network.
We analyze the use of a Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) system to generate and distribute oblivious keys. Oblivious keys can be used to implement secure multiparty computation services. After defining oblivious keys, we show how they can be reduced to symmetric keys and used to implement secure links, and how they can also be used to implement secure computation services. Oblivious keys can also be reversed. In this context, we analyze the advantages of using quantum resources to generate oblivious keys. Particularly, we analyze a protocol to generate oblivious keys, considering both the efficiency and security of the process. We show that by using QKD, we can simultaneously obtain an efficient and quantum-resistant solution to generate and distribute oblivious keys. Finally, we discuss a field trial where a quantum secure multiparty computation service for calculating phylogenetic trees was implemented in the Quantum Madrid Network.
Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) is one of the major cryptographic solutions to tackle the security threats associated to future computational advances, in particular those coming from quantum computing. At the most simple level, QKD can be seen as a highly secure source of symmetric secret keys in two separated places. Nonetheless, the lack of standardization and the strong requirements from the physical layer makes this technology very difficult to integrate in existing infrastructure.However, the success of QKD networks radically depends on the degree in which they can be adopted in the existing infrastructure, and it is a must that it happens via standard protocols and interfaces. The flexibility of novel network paradigms, like Software-Defined Networking (SDN), allows for a faster adoption of new concepts, hardware and services in telecommunications networks. This paradigm can be used for quantum communications, allowing for a fast and scalable deployment of quantum technologies and services in the telecommunications network to a degree that was simply impossible in previous schemes, where the different network devices and their connections should be modified, one by one, to create a quantum communications channel.This tutorial provides an introduction to existing QKD technologies and networks, followed by a descriptive explanation on how SDN principles can be utilized to abstract and integrate QKD systems as part of the network management. This will help to reduce the time-to-market for quantum technologies, and also will make quantum cryptography available as a service to be capitalized by the network operators.
Oblivious keys are a fundamental resource to support secure multiparty computation. Nevertheless, classically it is very resource demanding to generate and distribute secure oblivious keys, which has been hindered their utilization. However, using quantum communications they can be generated and distributed with an efficiency similar to secret symmetric keys. This can allow the proliferation of applications supported by secure multiparty computation. In this work, we discuss the generation and distribution of oblivious keys in fiber optic networks using quantum communications.
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With 5G communication networks enjoying commercial adoption, work has begun towards defining future 6G networks. The emergence of commercially viable quantum communication technologies offer these future communication networks information-theoretic key agreement techniques enabling provably quantum resistant secure communications through quantum key distribution protocols. However, commercial quantum key distribution systems rely on independent software implementations of key agreement protocols. Thus, while these systems may be mathematically secure they may incur security vulnerabilities in software. To address this we design a standardized sifting module, which can be used to generalize the description and execution of the necessary sifting in most if not all discrete variable quantum key distribution protocols, including entanglement based protocols. We give a general description of the software stack underlying implementations of the post-processing stage of quantum key distribution protocols, including our formalization of the two-way sifting stage of said protocols and the machinery required to realize it in a completely general manner. Finally, we give some example configurations for some common quantum key distribution protocols.