Abstract
Information-theoretical security of quantum key distribution (QKD) has been convincingly proven in recent years and remarkable experiments have shown the potential of QKD for real-world applications. Due to its unique capability of combining high key rate and security in a realistic finite-size scenario, the efficient version of the BB84 QKD protocol endowed with decoy states has been subject of intensive research. Its recent experimental implementation finally demonstrated a secure key rate beyond 1 Mb/s over a 50 km of optical fiber. However, the achieved rate holds under the restrictive assumption that the eavesdropper performs collective attacks. Here, we review the protocol and generalize its security. We exploit a map by Ahrens to rigorously upper bound the hypergeometric distribution resulting from a general eavesdropping. Despite the extended applicability of the new protocol, its key rate is only marginally smaller than its predecessor in all cases of practical interest.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 7021899 |
| Pages (from-to) | 197-204 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics |
| Volume | 21 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 May 2015 |
Keywords
- BB84 protocol
- collective attacks
- confidence interval
- finite-size effects
- independent identically distributed random variable
- Quantum communications
- quantum key distribution
- sampling theory