The Quantum Communications Research Group recently had their paper titled "An Architecture for Integrating QKD into Terrestrial Networks" accepted at the QCNC 2024 conference, which took place from July 1-3 in Kanazawa, Japan.
This paper, available online, proposes an architecture for the integration of QKD-generated keys into existing networks, taking into consideration long-distance QKD enabled via satellite networks, designed as part of UM’s involvement in the QUANGO and QUDICE projects. Aaron Abela, one of the team's Research Support Officers (RSOs) and a PhD student, presented the paper in the form of a poster at the conference.
The poster presentation garnered significant interest from conference participants. Aaron engaged with attendees, providing detailed explanations and insights into the research conducted by the Quantum Communications Research Group.
The QCNC conference served as a valuable platform for academic researchers and industry practitioners to showcase their advancements, exchange innovative ideas, and explore future directions in the fields of Quantum Communications, Networking, and Computing.
Paper abstract:
Quantum Key Distribution is widely accepted as being necessary to counteract threats posed by quantum computers to cybersecurity. However, a QKD setup is fundamentally a single-link solution. Applying this effectively and securely to an entire network requires an overlying architecture that manages the QKD-generated keys. This paper proposes an architecture for integrating QKD-generated keys into existing networks. It presents a logically centralised design, a communication model, and recommendations, offering guidance for teams developing their QKD architecture.