Title: Improving efficiency of quantum key distribution with probabilistic measurements

Authors: Abhishek Parakh; Pramode Verma; Mahadevan Subramaniam

Addresses: Nebraska University Center for Information Assurance, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha, NE 68182, USA ' Telecommunication Engineering, University of Oklahoma-Tulsa, Tulsa, OK 74135, USA ' Computer Science Department, University of Nebraska at Omaha Omaha, NE 68116, USA

Abstract: The first part of this paper presents two efficient cryptographic protocols, based on quantum entanglement, for secure exchange of secret keys. While the first protocol requires storage of entangled qubits, the second protocol has no storage requirements and presents a probabilistic model. We show that there is a tradeoff between security against eavesdropping and the efficiency of the protocol in terms of usable bits available for the secret key. This security parameter s can be varied by the communicating parties based on practical considerations. In the second part of the paper, we apply the probabilistic model to BB84 and show how it can be used to improve the efficiency of BB84.

Keywords: probabilistic modelling; QKD; quantum key distribution; efficiency improvement; cryptographic protocols; cryptography; security; eavesdropping; quantum entanglement.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSN.2016.075075

International Journal of Security and Networks, 2016 Vol.11 No.1/2, pp.37 - 47

Received: 11 Dec 2014
Accepted: 17 Apr 2015
Published online: 02 Mar 2016 *

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