Year: 2022
Type: article
Abstract: As an extension of quantum key distribution, secure communication among multiple users is a basic task in a quantum network. When the quantum network structure becomes complicated with a large number of users, it is important to investigate network issues, including security, key management, latency, reliability, scalability, and cost. In this work, we utilize the classical network theory and graph theory to address two critical issues in a quantum network, security and key management. First, we design a communication scheme with the highest security level that trusts a minimum number of intermediate nodes. Second, when the quantum key is a limited resource, we design key management and data scheduling schemes to optimize the utility of data transmission. Our results can be directly applied to the current metropolitan and free-space quantum network implementations and can potentially be a standard approach for future quantum network designs.
Authors: Hongyi Zhou, Kefan Lv, Longbo Huang, Xiongfeng Ma
Language: English
Subfield: Artificial Intelligence
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4205147474