Cargando…
All-photonic intercity quantum key distribution
Recent field demonstrations of quantum key distribution (QKD) networks hold promise for unconditionally secure communication. However, owing to loss in optical fibres, the length of point-to-point links is limited to a hundred kilometers, restricting the QKD networks to intracity. A natural way to e...
Autores principales: | , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group
2015
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4703867/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26671044 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10171 |
_version_ | 1782408796251881472 |
---|---|
author | Azuma, Koji Tamaki, Kiyoshi Munro, William J. |
author_facet | Azuma, Koji Tamaki, Kiyoshi Munro, William J. |
author_sort | Azuma, Koji |
collection | PubMed |
description | Recent field demonstrations of quantum key distribution (QKD) networks hold promise for unconditionally secure communication. However, owing to loss in optical fibres, the length of point-to-point links is limited to a hundred kilometers, restricting the QKD networks to intracity. A natural way to expand the QKD network in a secure manner is to connect it to another one in a different city with quantum repeaters. But, this solution is overengineered unless such a backbone connection is intercontinental. Here we present a QKD protocol that could supersede even quantum repeaters for connecting QKD networks in different cities below 800 km distant. Nonetheless, in contrast to quantum repeaters, this protocol uses only a single intermediate node with optical devices, requiring neither quantum memories nor quantum error correction. Our all-photonic ‘intercity' QKD protocol bridges large gaps between the conventional intracity QKD networks and the future intercontinental quantum repeaters, conceptually and technologically. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4703867 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2015 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-47038672016-01-22 All-photonic intercity quantum key distribution Azuma, Koji Tamaki, Kiyoshi Munro, William J. Nat Commun Article Recent field demonstrations of quantum key distribution (QKD) networks hold promise for unconditionally secure communication. However, owing to loss in optical fibres, the length of point-to-point links is limited to a hundred kilometers, restricting the QKD networks to intracity. A natural way to expand the QKD network in a secure manner is to connect it to another one in a different city with quantum repeaters. But, this solution is overengineered unless such a backbone connection is intercontinental. Here we present a QKD protocol that could supersede even quantum repeaters for connecting QKD networks in different cities below 800 km distant. Nonetheless, in contrast to quantum repeaters, this protocol uses only a single intermediate node with optical devices, requiring neither quantum memories nor quantum error correction. Our all-photonic ‘intercity' QKD protocol bridges large gaps between the conventional intracity QKD networks and the future intercontinental quantum repeaters, conceptually and technologically. Nature Publishing Group 2015-12-16 /pmc/articles/PMC4703867/ /pubmed/26671044 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10171 Text en Copyright © 2015, Nature Publishing Group, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited. All Rights Reserved. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
spellingShingle | Article Azuma, Koji Tamaki, Kiyoshi Munro, William J. All-photonic intercity quantum key distribution |
title | All-photonic intercity quantum key distribution |
title_full | All-photonic intercity quantum key distribution |
title_fullStr | All-photonic intercity quantum key distribution |
title_full_unstemmed | All-photonic intercity quantum key distribution |
title_short | All-photonic intercity quantum key distribution |
title_sort | all-photonic intercity quantum key distribution |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4703867/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26671044 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10171 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT azumakoji allphotonicintercityquantumkeydistribution AT tamakikiyoshi allphotonicintercityquantumkeydistribution AT munrowilliamj allphotonicintercityquantumkeydistribution |