Performance Improvement of Atmospheric Continuous-Variable Quantum Key Distribution with Untrusted Source

Atmospheric continuous-variable quantum key distribution (ACVQKD) has been proven to be secure theoretically with the assumption that the signal source is well protected by the sender so that it cannot be compromised. However, this assumption is quite unpractical in realistic quantum communication s...

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Main Authors: Qin Liao, Gang Xiao, Shaoliang Peng
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2021-06-01
Series:Entropy
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/23/6/760
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author Qin Liao
Gang Xiao
Shaoliang Peng
author_facet Qin Liao
Gang Xiao
Shaoliang Peng
author_sort Qin Liao
collection DOAJ
description Atmospheric continuous-variable quantum key distribution (ACVQKD) has been proven to be secure theoretically with the assumption that the signal source is well protected by the sender so that it cannot be compromised. However, this assumption is quite unpractical in realistic quantum communication system. In this work, we investigate a practical situation in which the signal source is no longer protected by the legitimate parts, but is exposed to the untrusted atmospheric channel. We show that the performance of ACVQKD is reduced by removing the assumption, especially when putting the untrusted source at the middle of the channel. To improve the performance of the ACVQKD with the untrusted source, a non-Gaussian operation, called photon subtraction, is subsequently introduced. Numerical analysis shows that the performance of ACVQKD with an untrusted source can be improved by properly adopting the photon subtraction operation. Moreover, a special situation where the untrusted source is located in the middle of the atmospheric channel is also considered. Under direct reconciliation, we find that its performance can be significantly improved when the photon subtraction operation is manipulated by the sender.
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spelling doaj.art-b8eea2d6a64845978bf6be41394598b32023-11-22T00:22:16ZengMDPI AGEntropy1099-43002021-06-0123676010.3390/e23060760Performance Improvement of Atmospheric Continuous-Variable Quantum Key Distribution with Untrusted SourceQin Liao0Gang Xiao1Shaoliang Peng2College of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, ChinaCollege of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, ChinaCollege of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, ChinaAtmospheric continuous-variable quantum key distribution (ACVQKD) has been proven to be secure theoretically with the assumption that the signal source is well protected by the sender so that it cannot be compromised. However, this assumption is quite unpractical in realistic quantum communication system. In this work, we investigate a practical situation in which the signal source is no longer protected by the legitimate parts, but is exposed to the untrusted atmospheric channel. We show that the performance of ACVQKD is reduced by removing the assumption, especially when putting the untrusted source at the middle of the channel. To improve the performance of the ACVQKD with the untrusted source, a non-Gaussian operation, called photon subtraction, is subsequently introduced. Numerical analysis shows that the performance of ACVQKD with an untrusted source can be improved by properly adopting the photon subtraction operation. Moreover, a special situation where the untrusted source is located in the middle of the atmospheric channel is also considered. Under direct reconciliation, we find that its performance can be significantly improved when the photon subtraction operation is manipulated by the sender.https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/23/6/760continuous-variable quantum key distributionatmospheric channelentanglement sourcephoton subtraction operation.
spellingShingle Qin Liao
Gang Xiao
Shaoliang Peng
Performance Improvement of Atmospheric Continuous-Variable Quantum Key Distribution with Untrusted Source
Entropy
continuous-variable quantum key distribution
atmospheric channel
entanglement source
photon subtraction operation.
title Performance Improvement of Atmospheric Continuous-Variable Quantum Key Distribution with Untrusted Source
title_full Performance Improvement of Atmospheric Continuous-Variable Quantum Key Distribution with Untrusted Source
title_fullStr Performance Improvement of Atmospheric Continuous-Variable Quantum Key Distribution with Untrusted Source
title_full_unstemmed Performance Improvement of Atmospheric Continuous-Variable Quantum Key Distribution with Untrusted Source
title_short Performance Improvement of Atmospheric Continuous-Variable Quantum Key Distribution with Untrusted Source
title_sort performance improvement of atmospheric continuous variable quantum key distribution with untrusted source
topic continuous-variable quantum key distribution
atmospheric channel
entanglement source
photon subtraction operation.
url https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/23/6/760
work_keys_str_mv AT qinliao performanceimprovementofatmosphericcontinuousvariablequantumkeydistributionwithuntrustedsource
AT gangxiao performanceimprovementofatmosphericcontinuousvariablequantumkeydistributionwithuntrustedsource
AT shaoliangpeng performanceimprovementofatmosphericcontinuousvariablequantumkeydistributionwithuntrustedsource