We investigate Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) relaying models. Firstly, we propose a novel quasi-trusted QKD relaying model. The quasi-trusted relays are defined as follows: (i) being honest enough to correctly follow a given multi-party finite-time communication protocol; (ii) however, being under the monitoring of eavesdroppers. We develop a simple 3-party quasi-trusted model, called Quantum Quasi-Trusted Bridge (QQTB) model, to show that we could securely extend up to two times the limited range of single-photon based QKD schemes. We also develop the Quantum Quasi-Trusted Relay (QQTR) model to show that we could securely distribute QKD keys over arbitrarily long distances. The QQTR model requires EPR pair sources, but does not use entanglement swapping and entanglement purification schemes. Secondly, we show that our quasi-trusted models could be improved to become untrusted models in which the security is not compromised even though attackers have full controls over some relaying nodes. We call our two improved models the Quantum Untrusted Bridge (QUB) and Quantum Untrusted Relay (QUR) ones. The QUB model works on single photons and allows securely extend up to two times the limited QKD range. The QUR model works on entangled photons but does not use entanglement swapping and entanglement purification operations. This model allows securely transmit shared keys over arbitrarily long distances without dramatically decreasing the key rate of the original QKD schemes.
Since the range of QKD is limited, QKD relaying methods are necessary. This becomes indispensable when one aims at building QKD networks as in the last recent years. All QKD relaying methods so far introduce some undesirable drawbacks. The most practical method is based on trusted model. This method has been applied in two famous QKD networks, DAPRA and SECOCQ @cite_20 @cite_14 @cite_15 @cite_10 . In this method, all the relaying nodes must be assumed perfectly secured. Such an assumption is critical since passive attacks or eavesdropping on intermediate nodes are very difficult to detect. A few number of intermediate nodes could lead to a great vulnerability in practice. Consequently, one wants to limit the number of trusted nodes in QKD networks.
@cite_15 @cite_14 @cite_10 @cite_20
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QKD networks are of much interest due to their capacity of providing extremely high security keys to network participants. Most QKD network studies so far focus on trusted models where all the network nodes are assumed to be perfectly secured. This restricts QKD networks to be small. In this paper, we first develop a novel model dedicated to large-scale QKD networks, some of whose nodes could be eavesdropped secretely. Then, we investigate the key transmission problem in the new model by an approach based on percolation theory and stochastic routing. Analyses show that under computable conditions large-scale QKD networks could protect secret keys with an extremely high probability. Simulations validate our results. We show how quantum key distribution (QKD) techniques can be employed within realistic, highly secure communications systems, using the internet architecture for a specific example. We also discuss how certain drawbacks in existing QKD point-to-point links can be mitigated by building QKD networks, where such networks can be composed of trusted relays or untrusted photonic switches. We consider the communication scenario where a source-destination pair wishes to keep the information secret from a relay node despite wanting to enlist its help. For this scenario, an interesting question is whether the relay node should be deployed at all. That is, whether cooperation with an untrusted relay node can ever be beneficial. We first provide an achievable secrecy rate for the general untrusted relay channel, and proceed to investigate this question for two types of relay networks with orthogonal components. For the first model, there is an orthogonal link from the source to the relay. For the second model, there is an orthogonal link from the relay to the destination. For the first model, we find the equivocation capacity region and show that answer is negative. In contrast, for the second model, we find that the answer is positive. Specifically, we show, by means of the achievable secrecy rate based on compress-and-forward, that by asking the untrusted relay node to relay information, we can achieve a higher secrecy rate than just treating the relay as an eavesdropper. For a special class of the second model, where the relay is not interfering itself, we derive an upper bound for the secrecy rate using an argument whose net effect is to separate the eavesdropper from the relay. The merit of the new upper bound is demonstrated on two channels that belong to this special class. The Gaussian case of the second model mentioned above benefits from this approach in that the new upper bound improves the previously known bounds. For the Cover-Kim deterministic relay channel, the new upper bound finds the secrecy capacity when the source-destination link is not worse than the source-relay link, by matching with achievable rate we present. The capacity of a particular large Gaussian relay network is determined in the limit as the number of relays tends to infinity. Upper bounds are derived from cut-set arguments, and lower bounds follow from an argument involving uncoded transmission. It is shown that in cases of interest, upper and lower bounds coincide in the limit as the number of relays tends to infinity. Hence, this paper provides a new example where a simple cut-set upper bound is achievable, and one more example where uncoded transmission achieves optimal performance. The findings are illustrated by geometric interpretations. The techniques developed in this paper are then applied to a sensor network situation. This is a network joint source-channel coding problem, and it is well known that the source-channel separation theorem does not extend to this case. The present paper extends this insight by providing an example where separating source from channel coding does not only lead to suboptimal performance-it leads to an exponential penalty in performance scaling behavior (as a function of the number of nodes). Finally, the techniques developed in this paper are extended to include certain models of ad hoc wireless networks, where a capacity scaling law can be established: When all nodes act purely as relays for a single source-destination pair, capacity grows with the logarithm of the number of nodes.