Distributed Relay Protocol for Probabilistic Information-Theoretic Security in a Randomly-Compromised Network

TL;DR

This paper presents a practical classical protocol that extends secure communication distances in networks with compromised nodes, achieving probabilistic information-theoretic security beyond quantum limitations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel classical secret sharing-based scheme that enhances secure transmission over long distances in compromised networks, surpassing quantum key distribution constraints.

Findings

Achieves arbitrarily high security confidence with modest resource scaling.

Extends secure communication distance beyond quantum key distribution limits.

Provides a practical approach with controllable failure probabilities.

Abstract

We introduce a simple, practical approach with probabilistic information-theoretic security to mitigate one of quantum key distribution's major limitations: the short maximum transmission distance (~200 km) possible with present day technology. Our scheme uses classical secret sharing techniques to allow secure transmission over long distances through a network containing randomly-distributed compromised nodes. The protocol provides arbitrarily high confidence in the security of the protocol, with modest scaling of resource costs with improvement of the security parameter. Although some types of failure are undetectable, users can take preemptive measures to make the probability of such failures arbitrarily small.