18,363 research outputs found
Quantum Metropolitan Optical Network based on Wavelength Division Multiplexing
Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) is maturing quickly. However, the current
approaches to its application in optical networks make it an expensive
technology. QKD networks deployed to date are designed as a collection of
point-to-point, dedicated QKD links where non-neighboring nodes communicate
using the trusted repeater paradigm. We propose a novel optical network model
in which QKD systems share the communication infrastructure by wavelength
multiplexing their quantum and classical signals. The routing is done using
optical components within a metropolitan area which allows for a dynamically
any-to-any communication scheme. Moreover, it resembles a commercial telecom
network, takes advantage of existing infrastructure and utilizes commercial
components, allowing for an easy, cost-effective and reliable deployment.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figure
A high-speed multi-protocol quantum key distribution transmitter based on a dual-drive modulator
We propose a novel source based on a dual-drive modulator that is adaptable
and allows Alice to choose between various practical quantum key distribution
(QKD) protocols depending on what receiver she is communicating with.
Experimental results show that the proposed transmitter is suitable for
implementation of the Bennett and Brassard 1984 (BB84), coherent one-way (COW)
and differential phase shift (DPS) protocols with stable and low quantum bit
error rate. This could become a useful component in network QKD, where
multi-protocol capability is highly desirable.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figure
Using quantum key distribution for cryptographic purposes: a survey
The appealing feature of quantum key distribution (QKD), from a cryptographic
viewpoint, is the ability to prove the information-theoretic security (ITS) of
the established keys. As a key establishment primitive, QKD however does not
provide a standalone security service in its own: the secret keys established
by QKD are in general then used by a subsequent cryptographic applications for
which the requirements, the context of use and the security properties can
vary. It is therefore important, in the perspective of integrating QKD in
security infrastructures, to analyze how QKD can be combined with other
cryptographic primitives. The purpose of this survey article, which is mostly
centered on European research results, is to contribute to such an analysis. We
first review and compare the properties of the existing key establishment
techniques, QKD being one of them. We then study more specifically two generic
scenarios related to the practical use of QKD in cryptographic infrastructures:
1) using QKD as a key renewal technique for a symmetric cipher over a
point-to-point link; 2) using QKD in a network containing many users with the
objective of offering any-to-any key establishment service. We discuss the
constraints as well as the potential interest of using QKD in these contexts.
We finally give an overview of challenges relative to the development of QKD
technology that also constitute potential avenues for cryptographic research.Comment: Revised version of the SECOQC White Paper. Published in the special
issue on QKD of TCS, Theoretical Computer Science (2014), pp. 62-8
Efficient quantum cryptography network without entanglement and quantum memory
An efficient quantum cryptography network protocol is proposed with
d-dimension polarized photons, without resorting to entanglement and quantum
memory. A server on the network, say Alice, provides the service for preparing
and measuring single photons whose initial state are |0>. The users code the
information on the single photons with some unitary operations. For preventing
the untrustworthy server Alice from eavesdropping the quantum lines, a
nonorthogonal-coding technique (decoy-photon technique) is used in the process
that the quantum signal is transmitted between the users. This protocol does
not require the servers and the users to store the quantum state and almost all
of the single photons can be used for carrying the information, which makes it
more convenient for application than others with present technology. We also
discuss the case with a faint laser pulse.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figures. It also presented a way for preparing decoy
photons without a sinigle-photon sourc
Getting routers out of the core: Building an optical wide area network with "multipaths"
We propose an all-optical networking solution for a wide area network (WAN)
based on the notion of multipoint-to-multipoint lightpaths that, for short, we
call "multipaths". A multipath concentrates the traffic of a group of source
nodes on a wavelength channel using an adapted MAC protocol and multicasts this
traffic to a group of destination nodes that extract their own data from the
confluent stream. The proposed network can be built using existing components
and appears less complex and more efficient in terms of energy consumption than
alternatives like OPS and OBS. The paper presents the multipath architecture
and compares its energy consumption to that of a classical router-based ISP
network. A flow-aware dynamic bandwidth allocation algorithm is proposed and
shown to have excellent performance in terms of throughput and delay
Quantum Cryptography in Practice
BBN, Harvard, and Boston University are building the DARPA Quantum Network,
the world's first network that delivers end-to-end network security via
high-speed Quantum Key Distribution, and testing that Network against
sophisticated eavesdropping attacks. The first network link has been up and
steadily operational in our laboratory since December 2002. It provides a
Virtual Private Network between private enclaves, with user traffic protected
by a weak-coherent implementation of quantum cryptography. This prototype is
suitable for deployment in metro-size areas via standard telecom (dark) fiber.
In this paper, we introduce quantum cryptography, discuss its relation to
modern secure networks, and describe its unusual physical layer, its
specialized quantum cryptographic protocol suite (quite interesting in its own
right), and our extensions to IPsec to integrate it with quantum cryptography.Comment: Preprint of SIGCOMM 2003 pape
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