International Conference on Quantum Communications, Networking, and Computing (QCNC)
Full-Mesh Quantum Key Distribution Network Based on Time-Shared Entanglement Distribution
Yury Kurochkin, V.E. Rodimin, Alexei Ponasenko, Attila Pereszlényi, Vlad Revici, Rodrigo Piera, Tahar Mehri, Karen Sloyan, Jaideep Singh, James A. Grieve
Abstract
We report on the design and field validation of a fully connected entanglement-based quantum key distribution (QKD) network employing a time-shared photon-pair source and reconfigurable optical switching. The system eliminates the need for trusted relay nodes and enables any-to-any secure connectivity among users over metropolitan-scale fiber infrastructure. We present a three-node prototype network operating in the O-band$(1310 / 1316 \text{nm})$which demonstrates key generation sufficient to provide pairwise 10 G encrypted connections between 32 users, and confirming practical feasibility for telecom integration.