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A hybrid quantum key distribution protocol based on extended unitary operations and fountain codes

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Abstract

In 1984, Bennett and Brassard designed the first quantum key distribution protocol, whose security is based on quantum indeterminacy. Since then, there has been growing research activities, aiming in designing new, more efficient and secure key distribution protocols. The work presents a novel hybrid quantum key distribution protocol. The key distribution is derived from both quantum and classical data. This is why it is called hybrid. The protocol applies extended unitary operations derived from four basic unitary operations and distributed fountain codes. Compared to other protocols published so far, the new one is more secure (provides authentication of parties and detection of eavesdropping) and efficient. Moreover, our protocol still works over noisy and lossy channels.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions to improve the presentation of this paper. Also, they would like to thank Prof. Gao Fei from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications for helping them to improve this paper. Hong Lai has been supported in part by an International Macquarie University Research Excellence Scholarship (iMQRES). Josef Pieprzyk was supported by Australian Research Council grant DP0987734. This work is also supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (Grant No. 2010CB923200), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 61377067). The work is also supported by Fund of State Key Laboratory of Information Photonics and Optical Communications (Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications), P. R. China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Science, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing, 100876, China

    Hong Lai & Jinghua Xiao

  2. Department of Computing, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, 2109, Australia

    Hong Lai & Mehmet A. Orgun

  3. Corporate Analytics, The Australian Taxation Office, Sydney, NSW, 2000, Australia

    Liyin Xue

  4. School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, 4000, Australia

    Josef Pieprzyk

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  1. Hong Lai
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  2. Liyin Xue
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  3. Mehmet A. Orgun
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  4. Jinghua Xiao
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  5. Josef Pieprzyk
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Correspondence to Hong Lai.

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Liyin Xue is involved in this paper, which is completely his personal hobby.

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Lai, H., Xue, L., Orgun, M.A. et al. A hybrid quantum key distribution protocol based on extended unitary operations and fountain codes. Quantum Inf Process 14, 697–713 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11128-014-0860-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11128-014-0860-5

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