Differential-phase-shift quantum-key-distribution protocol with a small number of random delays

Yuki Hatakeyama, Akihiro Mizutani, Go Kato, Nobuyuki Imoto, and Kiyoshi Tamaki
Phys. Rev. A 95, 042301 – Published 3 April 2017

Abstract

The differential-phase-shift (DPS) quantum-key-distribution (QKD) protocol was proposed aiming at simple implementation, but it can tolerate only a small disturbance in a quantum channel. The round-robin DPS (RRDPS) protocol could be a good solution for this problem, which in fact can tolerate even up to 50% of a bit error rate. Unfortunately, however, such a high tolerance can be achieved only when we compromise the simplicity, i.e., Bob's measurement must involve a large number of random delays (|R| denotes its number), and in a practical regime of |R| being small, the tolerance is low. In this paper, we propose a DPS protocol to achieve a higher tolerance than the one in the original DPS protocol, in which the measurement setup is less demanding than the one of the RRDPS protocol for the high tolerance regime. We call our protocol the small-number-random DPS (SNRDPS) protocol, and in this protocol, we add only a small amount of randomness to the original DPS protocol, i.e., 2|R|10. In fact, we found that the performance of the SNRDPS protocol is significantly enhanced over the original DPS protocol only by employing a few additional delays such as |R|=2. Also, we found that the key generation rate of the SNRDPS protocol outperforms the RRDPS protocol without monitoring the bit error rate when it is less than 5% and |R|10. Our protocol is an intermediate protocol between the original DPS protocol and the RRDPS protocol, and it increases the variety of the DPS-type protocols with quantified security.

  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Received 18 January 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.95.042301

©2017 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

  1. Research Areas
Quantum Information, Science & Technology

Authors & Affiliations

Yuki Hatakeyama1, Akihiro Mizutani1,*, Go Kato2, Nobuyuki Imoto1, and Kiyoshi Tamaki3

  • 1Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University, Toyonaka, Osaka 560-8531, Japan
  • 2NTT Communication Science Laboratories, NTT Corporation, 3-1 Morinosato Wakamiya, Atsugi, Kanagawa 243-0198, Japan
  • 3NTT Basic Research Laboratories, NTT Corporation, 3-1 Morinosato Wakamiya, Atsugi, Kanagawa 243-0198, Japan

  • *mizutani@qi.mp.es.osaka-u.ac.jp

Article Text (Subscription Required)

Click to Expand

References (Subscription Required)

Click to Expand
Issue

Vol. 95, Iss. 4 — April 2017

Reuse & Permissions
Access Options
Author publication services for translation and copyediting assistance advertisement

Authorization Required


×
×

Images

×

Sign up to receive regular email alerts from Physical Review A

Log In

Cancel
×

Search


Article Lookup

Paste a citation or DOI

Enter a citation
×