Study on the Performance of Hybrid Quantum-Classical Optical Networks

Abstract

Aiming at the hybrid transmission of quantum signals and classical optical signals in the same networks, we analyze the noise interference of classical high-intensity optical signals on quantum signals to obtain the performance of the practical hybrid quantum-classical networks. With two common quantum key distribution protocols, BB84 and measurement-device-independent (MDI) protocol, we discuss the influence of the spontaneous Raman scattering noise from the classical optical signals and the insertion loss of the main network components on the quantum key generation rate, secure transmission distance and number of users of the networks. The numerical results show that under the same conditions, compared with the BB84 hybrid optical networks, the quantum signals in the MDI hybrid optical networks are more strongly interfered by the classical glare signals, and the performance degradation is more obvious. For the small and medium-sized access networks (the number of users does not exceed 31), the transmission distance of the MDI protocol is farther. For larger-scale networks, the key generation rate of the BB84 protocol is higher when the transmission distance does not exceed 46 km.