Experimental study of post-processing for key generation in entangled free-space quantum key distribution system
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Abstract
This paper presents the design and development of practical post-processing software for a general quantum key distribution system. The proposed algorithms consist of three main contributions: 1) channel parameter estimation for quantum bit error rates by a random key sampling method, 2) information reconciliation using rate-adaptive LDPC codes, that collaborate with identical key confirmation by employing a polynomial-based hash function, and 3) privacy amplification performed by a universal hash function, where the binary information is randomly chosen to construct the Toeplitz matrix corresponding to the condition of a secure secret key rate. The proposed post-processing algorithms were implemented and tested in an entangled quantum key distribution experiment based on the BBM92 protocol over a 11-meter free-space quantum channel link. The experiment was conducted over 100 cycles and was able to generate the average sifted key rate of 1,109.08 bits per second. The efficiency of the proposed algorithms enabled two legitimate parties to generate the identical secret key according to the information-theoretic security principles, where the average estimated quantum bit error rate was 2.0127%, the average efficiency of information reconciliation was 1.1919, and the average final secret key rate was 428.42 bits per second. The proposed algorithms could be used in the industrial quantum key distribution systems based on a discrete-variable protocol by optimizing the input parameters of the post-processing procedure, especially for high-speed applications.
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