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An improved proposal on the practical quantum key distribution with biased basis

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Abstract

In this manuscript, we propose an improved scheme on the decoy-state quantum key distribution (QKD) under practical experimental conditions with biased basis. Compared with the standard decoy-state method with biased basis (prepare signal pulses in both X and Z basis with certain probabilities, and weak decoy pulses as well), the difference here is, we prepare signal pulses in both X and Z basis, but the weak decoy state in only X basis. In the follow-up, we adopt this scheme to conducting numerical simulations on the QKD with the mostly often used source, i.e., weak coherent source by taking statistical fluctuations into account. Furthermore, we carry out full parameter optimization on it. Numerical simulation results demonstrate that our new scheme can present a higher key generation rate and a longer transmission distance compared with standard three-intensity decoy-state method with biased basis. Moreover, it shows drastically improved performance by conducting full parameter optimization in our new scheme compared with partial optimization.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the National Key Research and Development Program of China through Grant No. 2017YFA0304100, the National Natural Science Foundation of China through Grants Nos. 61475197, 61590932, 11774180, 61705110, the Natural Science Foundation of the Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions through Grant No. 15KJA120002, the Outstanding Youth Project of Jiangsu Province through Grant No. BK20150039, the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province through Grant No. BK20170902, and the NUPTSF through Grant No. NY217006.

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Author notes

  1. Chen-Chen Mao and Jian Li have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Signal Processing Transmission, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Nanjing, 210003, China

    Chen-Chen Mao, Jian Li, Jian-Rong Zhu, Chun-Mei Zhang & Qin Wang

  2. Key Lab of Broadband Wireless Communication and Sensor Network Technology, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Ministry of Education, Nanjing, 210003, China

    Chen-Chen Mao, Jian Li, Jian-Rong Zhu, Chun-Mei Zhang & Qin Wang

  3. CAS Key Laboratory of Quantum Information, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Chun-Mei Zhang & Qin Wang

  4. Department of Physics, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210003, China

    Jian Li

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  1. Chen-Chen Mao
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  2. Jian Li
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  3. Jian-Rong Zhu
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  4. Chun-Mei Zhang
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Correspondence to Qin Wang.

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Mao, CC., Li, J., Zhu, JR. et al. An improved proposal on the practical quantum key distribution with biased basis. Quantum Inf Process 16, 256 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11128-017-1707-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11128-017-1707-7

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