Enabling Shortwave-QKD in Short-Reach Networks: Impact of a Composite ODN Native to Telecom Applications

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the feasibility of shortwave quantum key distribution in short-reach telecom networks, highlighting the impact of mode propagation and loss, and achieving secure key rates amidst multiple data channels.

Contribution

It introduces a practical implementation of shortwave-QKD over existing telecom architectures and analyzes the effects of mode propagation and speckle loss on performance.

Findings

Achieved 12 kb/s secure key rate in a multi-channel environment.

Identified significant impact of few-mode propagation and speckle loss on QKD performance.

Validated the integration of QKD with telecom data channels in short-reach networks.

Abstract

We deploy shortwave-QKD over short-reach in-house/datacom architectures and show that few-mode propagation and speckle-selective loss severely impact the QKD performance. We accomplish 12 kb/s secure-key generation in presence of 50 co-existing data channels.