Abstract
In recent years, noticeable progress has been made in the development of quantum equipment, reflected through the number of successful demonstrations of Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) technology. Although they showcase the great achievements of QKD, many practical difficulties still need to be resolved. Inspired by the significant similarity between mobile ad-hoc networks and QKD technology, we propose a novel quality of service (QoS) model including new metrics for determining the states of public and quantum channels as well as a comprehensive metric of the QKD link. We also propose a novel routing protocol to achieve high-level scalability and minimize consumption of cryptographic keys. Given the limited mobility of nodes in QKD networks, our routing protocol uses the geographical distance and calculated link states to determine the optimal route. It also benefits from a caching mechanism and detection of returning loops to provide effective forwarding while minimizing key consumption and achieving the desired utilization of network links. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the validity and accuracy of the proposed solutions.
Highlights
D URING the 30 years since the discovery of the first quantum protocol [1], quantum technology has grown significantly and is rapidly approaching high levels of maturity.Manuscript received December 4, 2017; revised May 25, 2018 and December 15, 2018; accepted November 9, 2019; approved by IEEE/ACM TRANSACTIONS ON NETWORKING Editor P
A Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) link between nodes s and i having a low value of Qm,s,i may be suitable for a network flow encrypted with less secure algorithms which require less key material than One-Time Pad (OTP), but it may not be suitable for encryption using OTP
Parameter α takes the value in the [0,1] range; if the OTP cipher is used, we suggest the value of α = 0.5
Summary
D URING the 30 years since the discovery of the first quantum protocol [1], quantum technology has grown significantly and is rapidly approaching high levels of maturity. Significant progress in the development of quantum equipment has been reflected through a number of successful demonstrations of QKD networks [2]–[7] but without showing the clear suitability to assess how such networks compete with their classical counterparts under real-life conditions and in real-time traffic. The traffic in these networks was mainly considered with equal importance, and it was treated with the same priority.
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