Abstract Generating a secure key and securely communicating it are crucial aspects for ensuring information security during encryption and decryption processes. Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) is a promising technique for enabling secure communication in Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) applications. This paper presents an enhanced BB84 protocol integrated with Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) that improves efficiency, security, and practical implementation. Our enhanced BB84 protocol employs a basis reconciliation mechanism and introduces a depolarizing channel model to simulate realistic noise conditions and eavesdropping detections. The system effectively identifies potential eavesdroppers based on Quantum Bit Error Rate (QBER) thresholds, thereby ensuring a secure key exchange process. Unlike traditional ECC implementations, our approach dynamically extracts prime numbers from a sifted key to generate elliptic curve parameters. The extracted key is used for AES encryption, providing an additional security layer for data confidentiality. The performance evaluation demonstrates efficient key generation and computational time, making this approach practical for IIoT environments. The experimental results indicate successful key generation and privacy amplification with a final key derived from the matched measurement bases. Elliptic curve generation successfully computes valid points supporting secure cryptographic operations. The estimated QBER ranged from 0.0 to 0.25, ensuring a secure key exchange. The AES encryption and decryption processes validate the usability of the generated key in real-world applications, confirming the robustness of our integrated QKD-ECC framework. The average key generation time ranged from 0.0000297 s, while the computational time was 0.0000714 s.
Abstract Generating a secure key and securely communicating it are crucial aspects for ensuring information security during encryption and decryption processes. Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) is a promising technique for enabling secure communication in Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) applications. This paper presents an enhanced BB84 protocol integrated with Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) that improves efficiency, security, and practical implementation. Our enhanced BB84 protocol employs a basis reconciliation mechanism and introduces a depolarizing channel model to simulate realistic noise conditions and eavesdropping detections. The system effectively identifies potential eavesdroppers based on Quantum Bit Error Rate (QBER) thresholds, thereby ensuring a secure key exchange process. Unlike traditional ECC implementations, our approach dynamically extracts prime numbers from a sifted key to generate elliptic curve parameters. The extracted key is used for AES encryption, providing an additional security layer for data confidentiality. The performance evaluation demonstrates efficient key generation and computational time, making this approach practical for IIoT environments. The experimental results indicate successful key generation and privacy amplification with a final key derived from the matched measurement bases. Elliptic curve generation successfully computes valid points supporting secure cryptographic operations. The estimated QBER ranged from 0.0 to 0.25, ensuring a secure key exchange. The AES encryption and decryption processes validate the usability of the generated key in real-world applications, confirming the robustness of our integrated QKD-ECC framework. The average key generation time ranged from 0.0000297 s, while the computational time was 0.0000714 s.
The rapid advancement of quantum computing poses a serious threat to traditional cryptographic systems such as RSA and Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC), which rely on computational difficulty for security. Quantum algorithms like Shor’s and Grover’s have the potential to break or weaken these methods, putting modern communication systems at risk. To address this challenge, this work presents a quantum-safe com-munication framework that combines the BB84 Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) protocol with Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) techniques, aiming to ensure secure data exchange in the presence of quantum-capable adversaries. In this system, the BB84 protocol is simulated to enable secure key exchange between two parties over a virtual quantum channel. The generated key is refined through processes such as basis matching, error correction, and privacy amplification using SHA-256 to ensure reliability and secrecy. For secur-ing communication, One-Time Pad (OTP) encryption is used alongside HMAC-SHA3-256 to provide both confidentiality and message integrity. Additionally, file encryption is handled using the XChaCha20-Poly1305 algorithm, selected for its efficiency and strong protection against potential vulnerabilities like nonce reuse. To further enhance security, the framework integrates a hybrid key management approach using the Kyber-512 Key Encapsulation Mechanism (KEM) combined with a Key Deriva-tion Function (KDF), merging classical and quantum-resistant techniques. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the system, achieving a Quantum Bit Error Rate (QBER) of 2.5% and successful performance in both message and file en-cryption. Overall, this work contributes toward the development of practical and resilient communication systems designed for the emerging quantum era.
Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) is increasingly recognized as a robust solution to the vulnerabilities posed by quantum computing to classical encryption systems. This paper presents a comprehensive investigation of the BB84 protocol, the foundational QKD scheme, through simulated quantum communication using IBM’s Qiskit framework. The study models quantum key exchange under both ideal and adversarial conditions, including channel noise and intercept-resend attacks. The Quantum Bit Error Rate (QBER) was measured as a function of noise intensity and eavesdropping, confirming that QBER increases predictably in compromised channels. A threshold of 11% QBER was used to determine the viability of secure key generation. Final key retention rates were analyzed across multiple channel scenarios, revealing BB84’s sensitivity to both photon loss and adversarial interference.\n\nSecurity vulnerabilities such as photon-number-splitting and detector blinding were assessed, and countermeasures including decoy-state protocols and authenticated classical channels were proposed. Four key performance graphs were generated to visualize system behavior under realistic operational conditions. The results support BB84’s theoretical advantage in ensuring information-theoretic security while acknowledging real-world limitations in transmission range and hardware reliability. The paper concludes by addressing future improvements in QKD systems, including satellite-based distribution, quantum repeaters, and device-independent implementations. Through simulation-driven analysis, this study validates BB84 as a practical defense against quantum-enabled attacks and underscores the need for continued development and standardization in post-quantum cryptographic infrastructure.
The emergence of quantum computing poses a significant threat to classical cryptographic systems, particularly those relying on mathematical hardness assumptions for key exchange. While symmetric algorithms such as the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) remain efficient and widely deployed, their long-term security ultimately depends on the secrecy of keys. In this paper, we present a hybrid framework that integrates quantum key distribution (QKD) with AES and DES to enhance key security without altering cipher internals. Using the BB84 protocol as the quantum key generator, we implement a simulation-based system in Qiskit and evaluate it against classical pseudo-random key generation.Our methodology covers five phases: establishing AES/DES baselines, generating quantum random keys, implementing BB84 with basis reconciliation and error detection, integrating quantum keys with AES/DES, and benchmarking across varying key sizes and file sizes. Results demonstrate that AES encryption throughput remains stable (around 250–370 MB/s) regardless of key source, while QKD introduces measurable latency in key generation (around 40–110 seconds for 128–256 bits). Importantly, adversarial interference is reliably detected, with 97.3% accuracy in eavesdropper identification.The findings confirm that while classical systems excel in speed and scalability, QKD offers unmatched, physics-backed security assurances. Our study highlights the practicality of hybrid quantum-classical encryption, providing a foundation for secure communication in the post-quantum era.
The accelerating development of quantum computing capabilities poses an unprecedented challenge to conventional encryption methodologies that currently underpin global digital security infrastructure. Classical cryptographic systems, including widely adopted standards such as RSA and AES, derive their security from the computational intractability of specific mathematical problems, a foundation that quantum algorithms threaten to fundamentally undermine. This research presents a comprehensive investigation into the practical implementation of Quantum Key Distribution as a transformative approach to establishing unconditionally secure communication channels. Through experimental deployment of the BB84 protocol augmented with advanced quantum error correction and privacy amplification techniques, we systematically evaluate the performance characteristics and security guarantees of QKD in realistic network environments. Our experimental framework achieves a secure key generation rate of 2.5 megabits per second while maintaining an average quantum bit error rate of 3.2 percent, demonstrating the practical viability of quantum-secured communication. The implementation exhibits exceptional eavesdropping detection capabilities with a 98.5 percent success rate in identifying unauthorized interception attempts. Comparative security analysis reveals that QKD-based encryption reduces vulnerability to brute-force attacks by 65 percent when contrasted with classical encryption standards. The integration of lattice-based post-quantum cryptographic algorithms provides an additional security layer against store-now-decrypt-later attack strategies. These findings substantiate the position of Quantum Key Distribution as a cornerstone technology for next-generation cybersecurity frameworks, offering robust protection against both current threats and the anticipated capabilities of large-scale quantum computers.
Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) leverages quantum mechanical principles to establish information-theoretically secure cryptographic keys. The cornerstone BB84 protocol, however, suffers from key rate degradation due to the mandatory discarding of erroneous bits during post-processing. This paper presents an enhanced BB84 protocol incorporating a Tagging and Correction Method that systematically tracks, classifies, and corrects errors rather than discarding them. This approach maximizes the key material retained from the quantum transmission. The protocol integrates decoy state analysis for robust detection of photon-number-splitting (PNS) attacks and concludes with privacy amplification to ensure informationtheoretic security. Experimental validation using a high-fidelity Qiskit simulation with a realistic depolarizing channel model demonstrates a significant improvement in key rate efficiency. In a simulated environment with 15% eavesdropper intervention, our method achieved a 7.8% higher key rate than standard BB84, while successfully maintaining the Quantum Bit Error Rate (QBER) below the 11% security threshold. This work establishes a more robust and efficient framework for practical QKD implementations.
Quantum computing technologies are rapidly evolving and are expected to challenge the security of traditional cryptographicsystems in the near future. To address this issue, this research introduces a secure two-way communication framework based onthe BB84 Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) protocol combined with AES-GCM encryption. The proposed system establishesquantum-generated secret keys between two communicating nodes and uses those keys for authenticated symmetric encryption.The implementation includes dynamic key pool management, automatic key regeneration, Quantum Bit Error Rate (QBER)analysis, eavesdropper detection, and real-time secure communication monitoring. A Streamlit-based graphical interface enablesvisualization of quantum transmission behavior, communication status, encrypted message exchange, and channel securitymetrics. Experimental observations show that the system successfully detects interception attempts through increased QBERwhile maintaining reliable communication under secure channel conditions. The developed framework demonstrates thepracticality of integrating quantum key exchange mechanisms with modern encryption methods for next-generation securecommunication systems.