Research on co-propagation of QKD and classical communication by reducing the classical optical power**Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61605248 and 61505261).

Abstract

We investigate the crosstalk noise, especially the spontaneous Raman scattering, in the optical fiber of a co-propagation system between quantum key distribution (QKD) and classical communications. Although many methods have been proposed, such as increasing the wavelength spacing and narrowband filtering technique, to suppress Raman scattering noise, these methods greatly affect the performance of QKD. One way to solve the obstacle restricting the coexistence is to decrease the classical signal power. Based on the high gain of the gated avalanche photodiode and pulse position modulation, we demonstrate that the co-propagation system works effectively with only a small effect on long-haul fibers, which has great significance for the practical widespread commercialization of QKD.