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British and Irish Conference on Optics and Photonics (BICOP)

Optical fibre eavesdropping comparison of hollow core DNANF vs SMF G. 652 and G. 657

Sanzhar Korganbayev, Leonard Budd, Seyed Mohammad Abokhamis Mousavi, Ghafour Amouzad Mahdiraji, Austin Taranta, Francesco Poletti

Published Jan 1, 2025• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Here we compare the vulnerability of hollow-core double-nested antiresonant nodeless fibre (DNANF) against standard SMFs, G652.D and bend-insensitive G657.B3, using a COTS eavesdropping device. Despite comparable geometric parameters, the DNANF shows 100,000X reduced tapped signal.
DOI
10.1364/bicop.2025.ps.2

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Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) technology has been considered as the ultimate physical layer security due to its dependencies on the physical laws of physics to generate quantum keys. However, for QKD to become functional for practical scenarios, it must be integrated with the classical optical networking infrastructure. Coping with optical nonlinearity from the classical represents a major challenge for QKD systems. In this paper, we take the advantage of the ultra-low nonlinearity of Hollow Core Nested Antiresonant Nodeless Fibre (HC-NANF) to demonstrate the coexistence of discrete-variable quantum key distribution channel with carrier-grade classical optical channels over a 2 km HC-NANF.
Initially considered secure against interception, fiber-optic networks were subsequently found susceptible to covert tapping, although such attacks require different coupling mechanisms and components than those used for twisted pair and coaxial cables. Fiber-optic networks carry the majority of data and voice traffic worldwide, including backhaul and fronthaul traffic in 4G and 5G radio networks, connections between data centers, and submarine cable systems. Consequently, physical access to fibers for interception has attracted the attention of intelligence agencies and industrial spies. This vulnerability is facilitated by the fact that single-mode optical fibers (SMFs) used in telecommunication networks have evolved relatively little over the last 40 years. Fibers of substantially different designs—anti-resonant hollow core fibers (HCF) and multi-core fibers (MCF)—made their commercial debut around 2023, and their susceptibility to tapping may differ substantially from that of conventional SMFs. New promising fiber monitoring techniques based on polarization measurements have also been demonstrated recently. While established tapping techniques remain feasible for conventional fibers, new fiber designs and monitoring technologies can make covert interception difficult. This review examines physical fiber tapping techniques and their practical feasibility, with particular emphasis on optical power constraints, introduced loss, detectability, and implementation limitations. It also reviews prevention and monitoring approaches, including optical time-domain reflectometry, received-power monitoring, and state-of-polarization (SOP) monitoring, and provides a prospective engineering assessment of the susceptibility of MCFs and HCFs to physical tapping.
We investigate taper tapping in three types of single-mode fibers using simulations and experiments: Standard single-mode fiber (SMF), bend-resistant single-mode fiber (BR-SMF) with a shallow index trench, and bend-insensitive single-mode fiber (BI-SMF) with a deep index trench. Both trench-assisted fibers demonstrate a larger mode field expansion than the standard single-mode fiber, making them more susceptible to taper-tapping than standard single-mode fibers. Tapering both SSMF and BR-SMF fibers to as little as25 μm\mathrm {25~\mu m}25 μmdiameter results in a high information extraction efficiency for an eavesdropper (≥−20 dB\mathrm {\geq -20~dB}≥−20 dB) while maintaining low loss for the legitimate channel (≤1 dB\mathrm {\leq 1~dB}≤1 dB), underlining the vulnerability of all fiber types to taper tapping. We also use optical time-domain reflectometry (OTDR) to identify changes in the fiber before and after tapering. Changes in the back reflected power of≤0.5 dB\mathrm {\leq 0.5~dB}≤0.5 dBand≤0.25 dB\mathrm {\leq 0.25~dB}≤0.25 dBare observed in25 μm\mathrm {25~\mu m}25 μmtapers in SMF and BR-SMF respectively.