Demonstration of a quantum key distribution network in urban fibre-optic communication lines
This addresses secure communication for urban networks by integrating multiple encoding types, though it is incremental as it builds on existing QKD and trusted repeater paradigms.
The authors implemented a quantum key distribution network using urban fiber-optic lines in Moscow, enabling secret key generation between users via trusted repeaters with a key refresh time of up to 14 seconds for symmetric encryption.
We report the results of the implementation of a quantum key distribution (QKD) network using standard fibre communication lines in Moscow. The developed QKD network is based on the paradigm of trusted repeaters and allows a common secret key to be generated between users via an intermediate trusted node. The main feature of the network is the integration of the setups using two types of encoding, i.e. polarisation encoding and phase encoding. One of the possible applications of the developed QKD network is the continuous key renewal in existing symmetric encryption devices with a key refresh time of up to 14 s.