Toward designing a quantum key distribution network simulation model

As research in quantum key distribution network technologies grows larger and more complex, the need for highly accurate and scalable simulation technologies becomes important to assess the practical feasibility and foresee difficulties in the practical implementation of theoretical achievements. In this paper, we described the design of simplified simulation environment of the quantum key distribution network with multiple links and nodes. In such simulation environment, we analyzed several routing protocols in terms of the number of sent routing packets, goodput and Packet Delivery Ratio of data traffic flow using NS-3 simulator

Game Theory Meets Network Security: A Tutorial at ACM CCS

The increasingly pervasive connectivity of today's information systems brings up new challenges to security. Traditional security has accomplished a long way toward protecting well-defined goals such as confidentiality, integrity, availability, and authenticity. However, with the growing sophistication of the attacks and the complexity of the system, the protection using traditional methods could be cost-prohibitive. A new perspective and a new theoretical foundation are needed to understand security from a strategic and decision-making perspective. Game theory provides a natural framework to capture the adversarial and defensive interactions between an attacker and a defender. It provides a quantitative assessment of security, prediction of security outcomes, and a mechanism design tool that can enable security-by-design and reverse the attacker's advantage. This tutorial provides an overview of diverse methodologies from game theory that includes games of incomplete information, dynamic games, mechanism design theory to offer a modern theoretic underpinning of a science of cybersecurity. The tutorial will also discuss open problems and research challenges that the CCS community can address and contribute with an objective to build a multidisciplinary bridge between cybersecurity, economics, game and decision theory

Modeling Quantum Optical Components, Pulses and Fiber Channels Using OMNeT++

Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) is an innovative technology which exploits the laws of quantum mechanics to generate and distribute unconditionally secure cryptographic keys. While QKD offers the promise of unconditionally secure key distribution, real world systems are built from non-ideal components which necessitates the need to model and understand the impact these non-idealities have on system performance and security. OMNeT++ has been used as a basis to develop a simulation framework to support this endeavor. This framework, referred to as "qkdX" extends OMNeT++'s module and message abstractions to efficiently model optical components, optical pulses, operating protocols and processes. This paper presents the design of this framework including how OMNeT++'s abstractions have been utilized to model quantum optical components, optical pulses, fiber and free space channels. Furthermore, from our toolbox of created components, we present various notional and real QKD systems, which have been studied and analyzed.Comment: Published in: A. F\"orster, C. Minkenberg, G. R. Herrera, M. Kirsche (Eds.), Proc. of the 2nd OMNeT++ Community Summit, IBM Research - Zurich, Switzerland, September 3-4, 201

A novel approach to quality-of-service provisioning in trusted relay Quantum Key Distribution networks

In recent years, noticeable progress has been made in the development of quantum equipment, reflected through the number of successful demonstrations of Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) technology. Although they showcase the great achievements of QKD, many practical difficulties still need to be resolved. Inspired by the significant similarity between mobile ad-hoc networks and QKD technology, we propose a novel quality of service (QoS) model including new metrics for determining the states of public and quantum channels as well as a comprehensive metric of the QKD link. We also propose a novel routing protocol to achieve high-level scalability and minimize consumption of cryptographic keys. Given the limited mobility of nodes in QKD networks, our routing protocol uses the geographical distance and calculated link states to determine the optimal route. It also benefits from a caching mechanism and detection of returning loops to provide effective forwarding while minimizing key consumption and achieving the desired utilization of network links. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the validity and accuracy of the proposed solutions.Web of Science28118116