Abstract
Quantum key distribution (QKD) provides a potent solution to securely distribute keys for two parties. However, QKD itself is vulnerable to denial of service (DoS) attacks. A flexible and resilient QKD-enabled networked microgrids (NMs) architecture is needed but does not yet exist. In this article, we present a programmable quantum NMs (PQNMs) architecture. It is a novel framework that integrates both QKD and software-defined networking (SDN) techniques capable of enabling scalable, programmable, quantum-engineered, and ultra-resilient NMs. Equipped with a software-defined adaptive post-processing approach, a two-level key pool sharing strategy and an SDN-enabled event-triggered communication scheme, these PQNMs mitigate the impact of DoS attacks through programmable post-processing and secure key sharing among QKD links, a capability unattainable using existing technologies. Through comprehensive evaluations, we validate the benefits of PQNMs and demonstrate the efficacy of the presented strategies under various circumstances. Extensive results provide insightful resources for building QKD-enabled NMs in practice.
Highlights
Major power outages in the United States in 2019, e.g., blackouts in Texas [1] and New York City [2], reveal that our existing power infrastructure is insufficient to sustain the ever-growing communities and increasingly deep integration of renewable energies
We present a programmable quantum networked microgrids (NMs) (PQNMs) architecture in this article
Equipped with SDAPP, TLKPS, and an software-defined networking (SDN)-enabled communication scheme, PQNMs are capable of efficiently mitigating the impact of denial of service (DoS) attacks through programmable post-processing and secure key sharing among Quantum key distribution (QKD) links
Summary
Major power outages in the United States in 2019, e.g., blackouts in Texas [1] and New York City [2], reveal that our existing power infrastructure is insufficient to sustain the ever-growing communities and increasingly deep integration of renewable energies. Wang et al [22] present an adaptive key protection scheme to route and allocate keys for constructing a protection path against DoS attacks All those methods are only applicable to QKD networks where multiple quantum paths exist between two nodes. Equipped with SDAPP, TLKPS, and an SDN-enabled communication scheme, PQNMs are capable of efficiently mitigating the impact of DoS attacks through programmable post-processing and secure key sharing among QKD links. Different with the existing methods in QKD networks, the presented strategies are well suited for quantum NMs. 3) It develops an SDN-enabled event-triggered communication scheme that maintains PQNMs’s resilience, and reduces the bandwidth consumption. 4) It builds a QKD and SDN-enabled NMs testbed in a Mininet environment incorporating both key generation and data transmission properties, providing valuable insights for constructing PQNMs in practice.
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