High-Fidelity Coherent-One-Way QKD Simulation Framework for 6G Networks: Bridging Theory and Reality

TL;DR

This paper presents a simulation framework for coherent-one-way QKD systems, validated through real-world experiments, aiming to facilitate design and deployment of QKD networks for future 6G communications.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive simulation tool for QKD system design, bridging theoretical models with practical deployment considerations.

Findings

Simulation results closely match real-world experiments

Framework accurately predicts key performance metrics

Enables efficient design of QKD systems for various distances

Abstract

Quantum key distribution (QKD) has been emerged as a promising solution for guaranteeing information-theoretic security. Inspired by this, a great amount of research effort has been recently put on designing and testing QKD systems as well as articulating preliminary application scenarios. However, due to the considerable high-cost of QKD equipment, a lack of QKD communication system design tools, wide deployment of such systems and networks is challenging. Motivated by this, this paper introduces a QKD communication system design tool. First we articulate key operation elements of the QKD, and explain the feasibility and applicability of coherent-one-way (COW) QKD solutions. Next, we focus on documenting the corresponding simulation framework as well as defining the key performance metrics, i.e., quantum bit error rate (QBER), and secrecy key rate. To verify the accuracy of the simulation framework, we design and deploy a real-world QKD setup. We perform extensive experiments for three deployments of diverse transmission distance in the presence or absence of a QKD eavesdropper. The results reveal an acceptable match between simulations and experiments rendering the simulation framework a suitable tool for QKD communication system design.