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Practical performance of real-time shot-noise measurement in continuous-variable quantum key distribution

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Abstract

In a practical continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CVQKD) system, real-time shot-noise measurement (RTSNM) is an essential procedure for preventing the eavesdropper exploiting the practical security loopholes. However, the performance of this procedure itself is not analyzed under the real-world condition. Therefore, we indicate the RTSNM practical performance and investigate its effects on the CVQKD system. In particular, due to the finite-size effect, the shot-noise measurement at the receiver’s side may decrease the precision of parameter estimation and consequently result in a tight security bound. To mitigate that, we optimize the block size for RTSNM under the ensemble size limitation to maximize the secure key rate. Moreover, the effect of finite dynamics of amplitude modulator in this scheme is studied and its mitigation method is also proposed. Our work indicates the practical performance of RTSNM and provides the real secret key rate under it.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants Nos. 61332019, 61671287, 61631014) and the National Key Research and Development Program (Grant No. 2016YFA0302600).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Advanced Optical Communication Systems and Networks, Shanghai Key Laboratory on Navigation and Location-Based Service, and Center of Quantum Sensing and Information Processing, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Tao Wang, Peng Huang, Yingming Zhou & Guihua Zeng

  2. College of Information Science and Technology, Northwest University, Xi’an, 710127, Shaanxi, China

    Weiqi Liu & Guihua Zeng

Authors
  1. Tao Wang
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  2. Peng Huang
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  3. Yingming Zhou
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  4. Weiqi Liu
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  5. Guihua Zeng
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Correspondence to Peng Huang or Guihua Zeng.

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Wang, T., Huang, P., Zhou, Y. et al. Practical performance of real-time shot-noise measurement in continuous-variable quantum key distribution. Quantum Inf Process 17, 11 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11128-017-1783-8

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