TY - UNPB
T1 - Finite resource performance of small satellite-based quantum key distribution missions
AU - Islam, Tanvirul
AU - Sidhu, Jasminder S.
AU - Higgins, Brendon L.
AU - Brougham, Thomas
AU - Vergoossen, Tom
AU - Oi, Daniel K. L.
AU - Jennewein, Thomas
AU - Ling, Alexander
PY - 2022/4/26
Y1 - 2022/4/26
N2 - In satellite-based quantum key distribution (QKD), the number of secret bits that can be generated in a single satellite pass over the ground station is severely restricted by the pass duration and the free-space optical channel loss. High channel loss may decrease the signal-to-noise ratio due to background noise, reduce the number of generated raw key bits, and increase the quantum bit error rate (QBER), all of which have detrimental effects on the output secret key length. Under finite-size security analysis, higher QBER increases the minimum raw key length necessary for non-zero secret key length extraction due to less efficient reconciliation and post-processing overheads. We show that recent developments in finite key analysis allow three different small-satellite-based QKD projects CQT-Sat, UK-QUARC-ROKS, and QEYSSat to produce secret keys even under very high loss conditions, improving on estimates based on previous finite key bounds. This suggests that satellites in low Earth orbit can satisfy finite-size security requirements, but remains challenging for satellites further from Earth.
AB - In satellite-based quantum key distribution (QKD), the number of secret bits that can be generated in a single satellite pass over the ground station is severely restricted by the pass duration and the free-space optical channel loss. High channel loss may decrease the signal-to-noise ratio due to background noise, reduce the number of generated raw key bits, and increase the quantum bit error rate (QBER), all of which have detrimental effects on the output secret key length. Under finite-size security analysis, higher QBER increases the minimum raw key length necessary for non-zero secret key length extraction due to less efficient reconciliation and post-processing overheads. We show that recent developments in finite key analysis allow three different small-satellite-based QKD projects CQT-Sat, UK-QUARC-ROKS, and QEYSSat to produce secret keys even under very high loss conditions, improving on estimates based on previous finite key bounds. This suggests that satellites in low Earth orbit can satisfy finite-size security requirements, but remains challenging for satellites further from Earth.
KW - quantum key distribution
KW - security analysis
KW - satellite
KW - low Earth orbit
U2 - 10.48550/arXiv.2204.12509
DO - 10.48550/arXiv.2204.12509
M3 - Working Paper/Preprint
SP - 1
EP - 11
BT - Finite resource performance of small satellite-based quantum key distribution missions
CY - Ithaca, New York
ER -