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This study experimentally demonstrates a method to boost secret key rates in coherent-one-way quantum key distribution by optimizing the use of existing single-photon detectors and extending the protocol to support multiple receivers. By combining time-bin information from dual detectors, researchers achieve higher throughput with minimal impact on security margins, offering a practical path toward scalable point-to-multipoint quantum networks.
Increasing the secret key rates and point-to-multipoint extension for experimental coherent-one-way quantum key distribution protocol
arXiv:2601.04543v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Using quantum key distribution (QKD) protocols, a secret key is created between two distant users (transmitter and receiver) at a particular key rate. Quantum technology can facilitate secure communication for cryptographic applications, combining QKD with one-time-pad (OTP) encryption. In order to ensure the continuous operation of QKD in real-world networks, efforts have been concentrated on optimizing the use of experimental components and effective QKD protocols to improve secret key rates and increase the transmission between multiple users. Generally, in experimental implementations, the secret key rates are limited by single-photon detectors, which are used at the receivers of QKD and create a bottleneck due to their limited detection rates (detectors with low detection efficiency and high detector dead-time). We experimentally show that secret key rates can be increased by combining the time-bin information of two such detectors on the data line of the receiver for the coherent-one-way (COW) QKD protocol with a minimal increase in quantum bit error rate (QBER, the proportion of erroneous bits). Further, we implement a point-to-multipoint COW QKD protocol, introducing an additional receiver module. The three users (one transmitter and two receivers) share the secret key in post-processing, relying on OTP encryption. Typically, the dual-receiver extension can improve the combined secret key rates of the system; however, one has to optimise the experimental parameters to achieve this within security margins. These methods are general and can be applied to any implementation of the COW protocol.
Abstract:Using quantum key distribution (QKD) protocols, a secret key is created between two distant users (transmitter and receiver) at a particular key rate. Quantum technology can facilitate secure communication for cryptographic applications, combining QKD with one-time-pad (OTP) encryption. In order to ensure the continuous operation of QKD in real-world networks, efforts have been concentrated on optimizing the use of experimental components and effective QKD protocols to improve secret key rates and increase the transmission between multiple users. Generally, in experimental implementations, the secret key rates are limited by single-photon detectors, which are used at the receivers of QKD and create a bottleneck due to their limited detection rates (detectors with low detection efficiency and high detector dead-time). We experimentally show that secret key rates can be increased by combining the time-bin information of two such detectors on the data line of the receiver for the coherent-one-way (COW) QKD protocol with a minimal increase in quantum bit error rate (QBER, the proportion of erroneous bits). Further, we implement a point-to-multipoint COW QKD protocol, introducing an additional receiver module. The three users (one transmitter and two receivers) share the secret key in post-processing, relying on OTP encryption. Typically, the dual-receiver extension can improve the combined secret key rates of the system; however, one has to optimise the experimental parameters to achieve this within security margins. These methods are general and can be applied to any implementation of the COW protocol.
Quantum Physics (quant-ph); Optics (physics.optics)
arXiv:2601.04543 [quant-ph]
(or arXiv:2601.04543v2 [quant-ph] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2601.04543 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite
Eur. Phys. J. D (2026) 80:75
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/s10053-026-01180-5 Focus to learn more DOI(s) linking to related resources
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