10-Gb/s data transmission using optical physical layer encryption and quantum key distribution

Abstract

A 10-Gb/s data transmission using the optical physical layer encryption and quantum key distribution (QKD) is developed. The physical layer encryption basing on the spectrum phase encoding technology, and the quantum key distribution relying on optical intensity modulation (IM) Y-00 cipher, are together performed to secure optical transmissions at 10 Gb/s. Especially, We propose a quantum key distribution method in which the encryption key generated at a update rate of up to 10 MHz is used for the parameters of the physical layer encryption with the spectral phase encoding. Compared with traditional quantum key distribution, our key rate is out of reach. A 10-Gb/s secure prototype is developed basing on this technique, which is experimentally applied in the 20-channel wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) network over 100 km fiber. The experimental results show that this method can ensure reliable transmission of cooperative users and prevent information from eavesdropping. The power penalty caused by data encryption is less than 3 dB for improving security of the data transmission. Furthermore, the bit error rate (BER) is analyzed, a BER above 0.48 for eavesdropper is verified.