Design of efficient resource provisioning algorithms for quantum key distribution-secured optical networks

Abstract

Increasing incidents of attacks and evolution of quantum computing poses challenges to secure existing information and communication technologies infrastructure. In recent years, quantum key distribution (QKD) is being extensively researched and is widely accepted as a promising technology to realize secure networks. QKD technique provides unconditional theoretical security as it relies on the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics, namely, the Heisenberg's uncertainty principle and the quantum no-cloning theorem, instead of the computational complexity of algorithms. These fundamental principles ensure that a third party trying to eavesdrop on a secret key is easily detected. It generates and distributes secret keys over an insecure communication channel using QKD protocols such as Bennett and Brassard- 84 (BB84) and others. The generated secret keys are then used to encrypt/decrypt the information. Optical ber networks carry a huge amount of information and are widely deployed around the world in the backbone terrestrial, submarine, metro, and access networks. Thus, increasing incidents of lightpath attacks motivated the research and development of QKD-secured optical networks (QKD-ONs).