Optical-Amplifier-Compatible Long-Distance Secure Key Generation Based on Random Phase Fluctuations for WDM Systems.

Ben Wu,Yue-Kai Huang

doi:10.3390/s20216296

Abstract

We proposed and experimentally demonstrated a secure key generation and distribution system that is compatible with optical amplifiers and standard wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) transmission systems. The key is generated from the phase fluctuations induced by environmental instabilities. The key generation system is tested in a 240 km bidirectional fiber-pair link with multiple optical amplifiers. To demonstrate the compatibility with WDM systems, 38 WDM channels are transmitted together with the key distribution channel. The secret key is protected against eavesdropping and coherence detection attack by the wide-band property of the signal carrier and the fast-changing rate of the phase fluctuations.

Highlights

Cryptography and data encryption are the fundamental elements of network security [1].The effectiveness of the data encryption relies on the scheme to generate and distribute the key securely
The security of the system relies on computational resources available for the eavesdropper, while the increasing power of quantum computing raises a potential challenge to the software-based key generation schemes [3,4,5,6]
We demonstrated the transmission of the key distribution channel with 38 wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) channels using

Summary

Introduction

Cryptography and data encryption are the fundamental elements of network security [1]. The effectiveness of the data encryption relies on the scheme to generate and distribute the key securely. If the key is attacked and exposed to an eavesdropper, the encrypted signal can be decrypted. Traditional key generation schemes are based on software algorithms. The widely used Rivest–Shamir–Adleman (RSA) cryptosystem is based on the difficulty to factor the product of two large prime numbers [2]. The security of the system relies on computational resources available for the eavesdropper, while the increasing power of quantum computing raises a potential challenge to the software-based key generation schemes [3,4,5,6]

Methods

Results

Conclusion