Drone- and Vehicle-Based Quantum Key Distribution

TL;DR

This paper presents a modular, mobile quantum key distribution system demonstrated on drones and vehicles, achieving secure communication with adaptable hardware and advanced security modeling for mobile platforms.

Contribution

It introduces a portable, platform-agnostic QKD system capable of mobile deployment and secure communication, with models ensuring security in dynamic environments.

Findings

Achieved secure key rates of 1.6 - 20 kbps in mobile scenarios.

Demonstrated drone-to-drone, drone-to-vehicle, and vehicle-to-vehicle quantum communication.

Developed security models accounting for device imperfections in mobile platforms.

Abstract

Quantum key distribution is a point-to-point communication protocol that leverages quantum mechanics to enable secure information exchange. Commonly, the transmitter and receiver stations are at fixed locations, and the single-photon quantum states are transmitted over fiber or free space. Here, we describe a modular, platform-agnostic, quantum key distribution transmitter and receiver with reduced size, weight, and power consumption to realize a mobile quantum communication system. We deploy the system on different moving platforms, demonstrating drone-to-drone, drone-to-vehicle, and vehicle-to-vehicle quantum communication, achieving secure key rates in the finite-key regime in the range of 1.6 - 20 kbps. To prove the security of the system, we develop advanced physics models of the devices that account for non-ideal behaviors that are of greater importance in mobile platforms. The modular system can be easily upgraded to include sources of entangled photonic quantum states, which will find application in future quantum networks.