Efficient reconciliation protocol for discrete-variable quantum key distribution

TL;DR

This paper introduces an efficient reconciliation protocol for discrete-variable quantum key distribution using optimized LDPC codes, significantly improving secret key rates by minimizing information leakage.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel reconciliation method employing LDPC codes optimized for the BSC, enhancing secret key rates in discrete-variable QKD.

Findings

Significant improvement in secret key rate over previous methods

Effective use of LDPC codes for reconciliation in QKD

Reduction in information leakage during reconciliation

Abstract

Reconciliation is an essential part of any secret-key agreement protocol and hence of a Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) protocol, where two legitimate parties are given correlated data and want to agree on a common string in the presence of an adversary, while revealing a minimum amount of information. In this paper, we show that for discrete-variable QKD protocols, this problem can be advantageously solved with Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) codes optimized for the BSC. In particular, we demonstrate that our method leads to a significant improvement of the achievable secret key rate, with respect to earlier interactive reconciliation methods used in QKD.