With the ever-growing concern for internet security, the field of quantum cryptography emerges as a promising
solution for enhancing the security of networking systems. In this paper, 20 notable papers from leading conferences and journals are reviewed and categorized based on their focus on various aspects of quantum cryptography, including key distribution, quantum bit commitment, post-quantum cryptography, and counterfactual quantum key distribution. The paper explores the motivations and challenges of employing quantum cryptography, addressing security and privacy concerns along with existing solutions. Secure key distribution, a critical component in ensuring the confidentiality and integrity of transmitted information over a network, is emphasized in the discussion. The survey examines the potential of quantum cryptography to enable secure key exchange between parties, even when faced with eavesdropping, and other applications
of quantum cryptography. Additionally, the paper analyzes the methodologies, findings, and limitations of each reviewed study, pinpointing trends such as the increasing focus on practical implementation of quantum cryptography protocols and the growing interest in post-quantum cryptography research. Furthermore, the survey identifies challenges and open research questions, including the need for more efficient quantum
repeater networks, improved security proofs for continuous variable quantum key distribution, and the development of quantum-resistant cryptographic algorithms, showing future directions for the field of quantum cryptography.
more »
« less
Advances in quantum cryptography
Quantum cryptography is arguably the fastest growing area in quantum information science. Novel theoretical protocols are designed on a regular basis, security proofs are constantly improving, and experiments are gradually moving from proof-of-principle lab demonstrations to in-field implementations and technological prototypes. In this paper, we provide both a general introduction and a state-of-the-art description of the recent advances in the field, both theoretical and experimental. We start by reviewing protocols of quantum key distribution based on discrete variable systems. Next we consider aspects of device independence, satellite challenges, and protocols based on continuous-variable systems. We will then discuss the ultimate limits of point-to-point private communications and how quantum repeaters and networks may overcome these restrictions. Finally, we will discuss some aspects of quantum cryptography beyond standard quantum key distribution, including quantum random number generators and quantum digital signatures.
more » « less- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10205715
- Publisher / Repository:
- Optical Society of America
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Advances in Optics and Photonics
- Volume:
- 12
- Issue:
- 4
- ISSN:
- 1943-8206
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- Article No. 1012
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
more » « less
Abstract Quantum key distribution (QKD) has established itself as a groundbreaking technology, showcasing inherent security features that are fundamentally proven. Qubit-based QKD protocols that rely on binary encoding encounter an inherent constraint related to the secret key capacity. This limitation restricts the maximum secret key capacity to one bit per photon. On the other hand, qudit-based QKD protocols have their advantages in scenarios where photons are scarce and noise is present, as they enable the transmission of more than one secret bit per photon. While proof-of-principle entangled-based qudit QKD systems have been successfully demonstrated over the years, the current limitation lies in the maximum distribution distance, which remains at 20 km fiber distance. Moreover, in these entangled high-dimensional QKD systems, the witness and distribution of quantum steering have not been shown before. Here we present a high-dimensional time-bin QKD protocol based on energy-time entanglement that generates a secure finite-length key capacity of 2.39 bit/coincidences and secure cryptographic finite-length keys at 0.24 Mbits s−1in a 50 km optical fiber link. Our system is built entirely using readily available commercial off-the-shelf components, and secured by nonlocal dispersion cancellation technique against collective Gaussian attacks. Furthermore, we set new records for witnessing both energy-time entanglement and quantum steering over different fiber distances. When operating with a quantum channel loss of 39 dB, our system retains its inherent characteristic of utilizing large-alphabet. This enables us to achieve a secure key rate of 0.30 kbits s−1and a secure key capacity of 1.10 bit/coincidences, considering finite-key effects. Our experimental results closely match the theoretical upper bound limit of secure cryptographic keys in high-dimensional time-bin QKD protocols (Mower
et al 2013Phys. Rev. A87 062322; Zhanget al 2014Phys. Rev. Lett. 112 120506), and outperform recent state-of-the-art qubit-based QKD protocols in terms of secure key throughput using commercial single-photon detectors (Wengerowskyet al 2019Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. 116 6684; Wengerowskyet al 2020npj Quantum Inf. 6 5; Zhanget al 2014Phys. Rev. Lett. 112 120506; Zhanget al 2019Nat. Photon. 13 839; Liuet al 2019Phys. Rev. Lett. 122 160501; Zhanget al 2020Phys. Rev. Lett. 125 010502; Weiet al 2020Phys. Rev. X10 031030). The simple and robust entanglement-based high-dimensional time-bin protocol presented here provides potential for practical long-distance quantum steering and QKD with multiple secure bits-per-coincidence, and higher secure cryptographic keys compared to mature qubit-based QKD protocols. -
Quantum cryptography provides absolute security against an all-powerful eavesdropper (Eve). However, in practice Eve's resources may be restricted to a limited aperture size so that she cannot collect all paraxial light without alerting the communicating parties (Alice and Bob). In this paper we study a quantum wiretap channel in which the connection from Alice to Eve is lossy, so that some of the transmitted quantum information is inaccessible to both Bob and Eve. For a pureloss channel under such restricted eavesdropping, we show that the key rates achievable with a two-mode squeezed vacuum state, heterodyne detection, and public classical communication assistance-given by the Hashing inequality-can exceed the secret key distillation capacity of the channel against an omnipotent eavesdropper. We report upper bounds on the key rates under the restricted eavesdropping model based on the relative entropy of entanglement, which closely match the achievable rates. For the pure-loss channel under restricted eavesdropping, we compare the secret-key rates of continuous-variable (CV) quantum key distribution (QKD) based on Gaussian-modulated coherent states and heterodyne detection with the discrete variable (DV) decoystate BB84 QKD protocol based on polarization qubits encoded in weak coherent laser pulses.more » « less
-
The elliptic curve family of schemes has the lowest computational latency, memory use, energy consumption, and bandwidth requirements, making it the most preferred public key method for adoption into network protocols. Being suitable for embedded devices and applicable for key exchange and authentication, ECC is assuming a prominent position in the field of IoT cryptography. The attractive properties of the relatively new curve Curve448 contribute to its inclusion in the TLS1.3 protocol and pique the interest of academics and engineers aiming at studying and optimizing the schemes. When addressing low-end IoT devices, however, the literature indicates little work on these curves. In this paper, we present an efficient design for both protocols based on Montgomery curve Curve448 and its birationally equivalent Edwards curve Ed448 used for key agreement and digital signature algorithm, specifically the X448 function and the Ed448 DSA, relying on efficient low-level arithmetic operations targeting the ARM-based Cortex-M4 platform. Our design performs point multiplication, the base of the Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDH), in 3,2KCCs, resulting in more than 48% improvement compared to the best previous work based on Curve448, and performs sign and verify, the main operations of the Edwards-curves Digital Signature Algorithm (EdDSA), in 6,038KCCs and 7,404KCCs, showing a speedup of around 11% compared to the counterparts. We present novel modular multiplication and squaring architectures reaching ∼25% and ∼35% faster runtime than the previous best-reported results, respectively, based on Curve448 key exchange counterparts, and ∼13% and ∼25% better latency results than the Ed448-based digital signature counterparts targeting Cortex-M4 platform.more » « less
-
The elliptic curve family of schemes has the lowest computational latency, memory use, energy consumption, and bandwidth requirements, making it the most preferred public key method for adoption into network protocols. Being suitable for embedded devices and applicable for key exchange and authentication, ECC is assuming a prominent position in the field of IoT cryptography. The attractive properties of the relatively new curve Curve448 contribute to its inclusion in the TLS1.3 protocol and pique the interest of academics and engineers aiming at studying and optimizing the schemes. When addressing low-end IoT devices, however, the literature indicates little work on these curves. In this paper, we present an efficient design for both protocols based on Montgomery curve Curve448 and its birationally equivalent Edwards curve Ed448 used for key agreement and digital signature algorithm, specifically the X448 function and the Ed448 DSA, relying on efficient lowlevel arithmetic operations targeting the ARM-based Cortex-M4 platform. Our design performs point multiplication, the base of the Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDH), in 3,2KCCs, resulting in more than 48% improvement compared to the best previous work based on Curve448, and performs sign and verify, the main operations of the Edwards-curves Digital Signature Algorithm (EdDSA), in 6,038KCCs and 7,404KCCs, showing a speedup of around 11% compared to the counterparts. We present novel modular multiplication and squaring architectures reaching 25% and s 35% faster runtime than the previous best-reported results, respectively, based on Curve448 key exchange counterparts, and s 13% and s 25% better latency results than the Ed448-based digital signature counterparts targeting Cortex-M4 platform.more » « less
