Quantum cryptography in practice

Abstract

BBN, Harvard, and Boston University are building the DARPA Quantum Network, the world's first network that delivers end-to-end network security via high-speed Quantum Key Distribution, and testing that Network against sophisticated eavesdropping attacks. The first network link has been up and steadily operational in our laboratory since December 2002. It provides a Virtual Private Network between private enclaves, with user traffic protected by a weak-coherent implementation of quantum cryptography. This prototype is suitable for deployment in metro-size areas via standard telecom (dark) fiber. In this paper, we introduce quantum cryptography, discuss its relation to modern secure networks, and describe its unusual physical layer, its specialized quantum cryptographic protocol suite (quite interesting in its own right), and our extensions to IPsec to integrate it with quantum cryptography.

Enhancing ip security by integrating quantum key distribution into communication processes

“…It proposes the idea of using QKD in IPSEC as Key generator for AES. In 2003, BBN technologies describes the possibility of integrating QKD within the standard IKE [8] and announces some concerns linked to the compatibility of QKD with IKE. In our paper, we propose a QKD solution for IPSEC called SEQKEIP that is not based on IKE but on ISAKMP.…”

A Survey of Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) Technologies

“…In 2002, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) built a QKD system to explore networks that had multiple Alice and Bob system pairs rather than a single system [22]. The system integrated QKD-based key generation, traditional Ethernet encryption, and key management to secure a virtual private network (VPN) that was compatible with existing telecommunication infrastructure.…”

Key Distribution Using Dual Quantum Channels

“…• An entity cannot measure or copy the state of a quantum without altering it. The BB84 protocol has been the first proposed protocol that is based on them, as well as some other major quantum cryptography protocols [2][3][5][6][7][8][9][10][11], have been widely adopted in applications and experiments [12][13][14].…”