Based on the basic principles of quantum mechanics, quantum key distribution (QKD) provides unconditional security for long-distance communication. However, existing QKD with relevant source protocols have limited tolerance for source correlation, which greatly reduces the key generation rate and limits the secure transmission distance, thereby limiting their practical deployment. In this work, we propose an improved QKD with correlated source protocol to overcome these limitations by discarding the traditional loss-tolerant security frameworks. Our approach adopts the standard BB84 protocol for the security analysis, under the assumption that the source correlation has a bounded range and characterized inner product of the states. We theoretically analyze the performance of the improved protocol at different levels of source correlation and channel loss. Numerical simulations show that our protocol achieves a much higher secret key rate and longer transmission distance than traditional schemes. In the case of typical parameters and 0 dB loss, our protocol achieves about 1.5–3 times improvement in secret key rate. Additionally, the maximum tolerable loss is enhanced by about 2–6 dB. This highlights a promising direction for enhancing the robustness and practicality of QKD with correlated sources systems, paving the way for their deployment in real-world quantum communication networks.
Based on the basic principles of quantum mechanics, quantum key distribution (QKD) provides unconditional security for long-distance communication. However, existing QKD with relevant source protocols have limited tolerance for source correlation, which greatly reduces the key generation rate and limits the secure transmission distance, thereby limiting their practical deployment. In this work, we propose an improved QKD with correlated source protocol to overcome these limitations by discarding the traditional loss-tolerant security frameworks. Our approach adopts the standard BB84 protocol for the security analysis, under the assumption that the source correlation has a bounded range and characterized inner product of the states. We theoretically analyze the performance of the improved protocol at different levels of source correlation and channel loss. Numerical simulations show that our protocol achieves a much higher secret key rate and longer transmission distance than traditional schemes. In the case of typical parameters and 0 dB loss, our protocol achieves about 1.5–3 times improvement in secret key rate. Additionally, the maximum tolerable loss is enhanced by about 2–6 dB. This highlights a promising direction for enhancing the robustness and practicality of QKD with correlated sources systems, paving the way for their deployment in real-world quantum communication networks.
Quantum key distribution (QKD) offers theoretical security guarantees for sharing secure key, but its practical systems face challenges due to the imperfections of devices. Widespread quantum state preparation imperfections, such as correlations between multiple rounds, significantly undermine the real-world security of QKD. In this paper, we propose a protocol that is immune to almost all kinds of state-preparation imperfections over multiple correlated rounds arising from both encoding and unknown non-encoding dimensions. The protocol relies only on three assumptions: the imperfect encoding produces unknown product states rather than entangled ones, a lower bound on the vacuum components is known, and the correlation has a finite range. The proposed protocol is also measurement-device-independent, ensuring high security at both the source and measurement sides. We provide the finite-key security analysis against coherent attacks and conduct numerical simulations to see the performance. The results show that for small correlation ranges, the protocol achieves excellent performance with a maximal transmission loss exceeding 60 dB (>300 km in standard fiber). Even for extreme cases, where one encoding affects up to 500 neighboring rounds, the protocol can still generate secret keys over a 10 dB-loss channel.
The Bennett-Brassard 1984 (BB84) protocol is the most widely implemented quantum key distribution (QKD) scheme. However, despite enormous theoretical and experimental efforts in the past decades, the security of this protocol with imperfect sources has not yet been rigorously established. In this paper, we address this shortcoming and prove the security of the BB84 protocol in the presence of multiple source imperfections, including state preparation flaws and side channels, such as Trojan-horse attacks, mode dependencies and classical correlations between the emitted pulses. To do so, we consider a modified BB84 protocol that exploits the basis mismatched events, which are often discarded in standard security analyses of this scheme; and employ the reference technique, a powerful mathematical tool to accommodate source imperfections in the security analysis of QKD. Moreover, we compare the achievable secret-key rate of the modified BB84 protocol with that of the three-state loss-tolerant protocol, and show that the addition of a fourth state, while redundant in ideal conditions, significantly improves the estimation of the leaked information in the presence of source imperfections, resulting in a better performance. This paper demonstrates the relevance of the BB84 protocol in guaranteeing implementation security, taking us a step further towards closing the existing gap between theory and practice of QKD.
Intensity correlations between neighbouring pulses open a prevalent yet often overlooked security loophole in decoy-state quantum key distribution (QKD). As a solution, we present and experimentally demonstrate an intensity-correlation-tolerant QKD protocol that mitigates the negative effect that this phenomenon has on the secret key rate according to existing security analyses. Compared to previous approaches, our method significantly enhances the robustness against correlations, notably improving both the maximum transmission distances and the achievable secret key rates across different scenarios. By relaxing constraints on correlation parameters, our protocol enables practical devices to counter intensity correlations. We experimentally demonstrate this first practical solution that directly overcomes this security vulnerability, establish the feasibility and efficacy of our proposal, taking a major step towards loophole-free and high-performance QKD.
Quantum key distribution (QKD) provides information-theoretic security based on quantum mechanics, yet its implementation is hindered by source imperfections. Among these, correlations between transmitted pulses present a critical but underexplored threat to QKD's theoretical security. We propose a general framework for QKD security under correlated sources, achieving the first finite-key analysis by extending and reorganizing QKD rounds using the generalized chain rule. Inspired by side-channel-secure QKD, we design a protocol secure against correlated leakage sources, requiring only the correlation range and lower bounds on the vacuum component of the prepared states. Our framework also applies to other QKD protocols, providing a general approach to address correlation-induced vulnerabilities. Simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of our protocol and its significantly superior tolerance to imperfections compared to existing protocols. This work provides a crucial step toward closing security loopholes in QKD, enhancing its practicality, and ensuring long-distance, high-performance secure communication under real-world constraints.
The security of quantum key distribution (QKD) is based on the basic principles of quantum mechanics, and therefore has unconditional security in theory. In existing quantum key distribution systems, weakly coherent sources (WCSs) are often used as light sources due to a high probability of vacuum pulses in these sources, resulting in limited transmission distances. Besides, there inevitably exist equipment defects in actual QKD systems, such as certain defects in phase modulators and intensity modulators, which lead to distinguishability of quantum states in higher dimensions and result in side-channel vulnerabilities. An eavesdropper can carry out corresponding attacks, thereby threatening the actual security of QKD systems. To overcome the above limitations, we propose an improved protocol on quantum key distribution based on monitoring heralded single-photon sources. Due to the simultaneity of parametric down-conversion photon pairs, we can accurately predict the arrival of one photon by measuring the arrival time of another photon. Through this way, we can greatly reduce the probability of vacuum states in the signal light, and increase the longest transmission distance of the QKD system. Moreover, a light source monitoring module is inserted into the sender’s side. By randomly selecting a certain period of time through the source monitoring module to measure the Hong-Ou-Mandel interference between the signal light and the idle light , we can estimate the side-channel information leakage of the source and then obtain the key generation rate. Compared with the QKD protocol based on monitoring weak coherent sources, our present protocol can give a better performance in either the transmission distance or the key generation rate, especially when the interference error is large. In addition, in principle, our present protocol can also be extended to other quantum key distribution protocols, such as the measurement-device-independent protocols, to further improve the security and practicability of QKD systems. Therefore, our present work can provide valuable references for realizing the large-scale application of quantum communication networks in the near future.
This paper investigates a novel approach to enhancing cryptographic key distribution using entanglement swapping. Current quantum key distribution (QKD) protocols are often limited by distance due to signal loss and decoherence during the direct transmission of entangled photons. This research proposes a protocol that overcomes these limitations by employing entanglement swapping, effectively extending the range of secure key exchange. The core of the method involves strategically swapping entangled pairs to create correlated states between distant parties, circumventing the need for direct transmission over long distances. Mathematical formulations detailing the protocol's key steps, including the quantum operations and measurement outcomes, are presented. The analysis demonstrates a pathway towards significantly increasing the practical range of QKD systems, offering a potential solution for secure communication over greater distances. The theoretical framework presented here lays the groundwork for future experimental implementations and further optimization of entanglement swapping protocols for enhanced QKD performance.