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Project Mission |
To conduct quantum information related
research to: |
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Provide solutions for advanced quantum
information science and technology to enhance US industrial
competitiveness. |
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Develop and exploit new
calibration and metrology techniques to achieve standardization in the
area of quantum information and communication.
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Provide an infrastructure for quantum key
distribution metrology, testing, calibration, and technology
development. |
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About Us |
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Publications
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Links |
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Collaborations
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Team |
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Developments
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Opportunities
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Most Resent Publications |
Lijun Ma Senior Member, IEEE, Tiejun Chang,
Alan Mink Member, IEEE, Oliver Slattery, Barry Hershman, and Xiao Tang,
"Experimental Demonstration of a Detection-time-bin-shift Polarization Encoding
Quantum Key Distribution System", IEEE Communications Letters, Vol. 12, NO. 6,
June 2008.
Lijun Ma, Tiejun Chang, Alan Mink, Oliver
Slattery, Barry Hershman, and Xiao Tang, "Experimental demonstration of an
active quantum key distribution network with over Gbps clock synchronization",
IEEE Communications Letters, Vol. 11, No. 12, P.1019, December 2007.
Alan. Mink, Lijun Ma, Hai Xu, Oliver Slattery,
Barry Hershman and Xiao Tang, "A Quantum network manager that supports a one-time
pad stream", Proc of the 2nd International Conference on Quantum, Nano, and Micro
Technology, St. Luce, Martinique, Feb 10-15, 2008, pp 16-21.
L. Ma, T.Chang, X. Tang, "Detection-Time-Bin-Shift
Polarization Encoding Quantum Key Distribution System," Conference on Laser and
Electro-Optics/ Quantum electronics and Laser Science Conference 08, CLEO/QELS
Technical Digest, QWB4 (2008).
L. Ma, H. Xu, T.Chang, O. Slattery, X. Tang,
"Experimental Implementation of 1310-nm Differential Phase Shift QKD System with
Up-Conversion Detectors," Conference on Laser and Electro-Optics/ Quantum
electronics and Laser Science Conference 08, CLEO/QELS Technical Digest
JTuA105, (2008).
Hai Xu, Lijun Ma, Alan Mink, Barry Hershman
and Xiao. Tang. " 1310-nm quantum key distribution system with up-conversion pump wavelength at 1550 nm ", Optics Express, Vol. 15, Issue 12, pp. 7247-7260
(May 30, 2007).
All Publications.
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Three-User active QKD network developed by ITL
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NISTs Information Technology Laboratory (ITL) has demonstrated a three-node
QKD network that allows multiple users to share a secure key. This QKD
network operates on the 850 nm and 1550 nm wavelengths at 1.25 Gbps
clock rate. The communication route is controlled by a MEMS optical
switch.
Since security has become a critical issue for current data communication
systems and networks, provably secure encryption techniques are needed.
Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) is one approach that can provide unconditional
security of communication and is based on the fundamental laws of physics
rather than mathematical or algorithmic computational complexity. Since
QKD was first proposed in 1984, several high-speed and long-distance
point-to-point links have been demonstrated. However, speed and distance
are not the only objectives of QKD systems. Integrating a QKD system
into a network that supports security for a number of interconnected
users is important for evaluating the practicality of deployment of
such a system into commercial infrastructures.
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Configuration of active 3-node
QKD secured network |
The three-node QKD network, shown schematically in the figure, has
two vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSEL) generate 850-nm
optical pulse trains at Alice, which are complementarily modulated by
pseudo-random data generated by a custom high speed data handling circuit
board in Alice's computer. The two pulse trains are attenuated down
to a single photon level. Their polarization orientations are set at
45 and 90 degrees respectively and they are then combined into a single
fiber, forming the quantum channel. The classical channel is generated
by a WDM transceiver, which transmits a 1510-nm signal and receives
a 1590-nm signal. The communication routine of the quantum channel and
the classical channel are controlled by two MEMS optical switches independently.
At each Bob, the arriving photons are randomly selected by a 50/50 coupler
into different detection bases. After the polarization state is automatically
recovered by polarization controllers, these photons are detected by
silicon avalanche photodiodes (APDs). For the classical channel, another
WDM transceiver receives the 1510-nm signal and transmits a 1590-nm
signal.
The system can perform either the BB84 or B92 protocol. Though not
as secure as the protocol BB84 and vulnerable to the "intercept-resend"
attack, the B92 protocol is relatively simple to implement at a lower
cost, and it is widely used in laboratory studies of the physical-layer
of QKD systems. It should be noted, however, that the system can be
converted to the BB84 protocol by adding additional APDs and faint laser
sources. The system switching time in this network is approximately
1~2 minutes.
A practical QKD network needs a network management system that coordinates
all nodes and operations, such as switching, synchronization and polarization
recovery. For this project, a network manager was developed. The manager
consists of a set of commands that request operations including link
switching, polarization recovery, key sifting, error reconciliation,
and privacy amplification functions etc. These commands are sent through
the internet. With the network manager, the QKD network can automatically
reconfigure the transmission links and implement multi-node quantum
key distribution without any manual control and tuning.
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QKD secured network application: secured
surveillance system |
A high-speed QKD network can provide a wide range of potential applications
in Local Area Networks (LANs). One important application is a QKD secured
video surveillance network. A video surveillance system secured by the
three-node QKD network is demonstrated as shown in the figure below.
The two Bobs at two different locations are each equipped with a monitoring
video camera, while Alice is installed at the surveillance station.
A network management PC/ (OR computer) controls the optical switches
and the initial link connection. Once the secret quantum keys are generated
between the two nodes, the video content from the monitoring camera
at Bob is encrypted with the secret key bits and sent to Alice over
an unsecured public network, which, in this experiment, is just the
Internet. Alice can then decrypt the transmitted data and display the
video. The speed of our system enables real-time one-time pad encryption
and decryption of streaming video.
Xiao Tang, Lijun Ma, Alan Mink, Anastase Nakassis, Hai Xu, Barry Hershman,
Joshua Bienfang, David Su, Ronald F. Boisvert, Charles Clark, and Carl
Williams, "Demonstration
of an Active Quantum Key Distribution Network," Proc. SPIE
Vol. 6305, 630506 (August 2006)
Lijun Ma, Tiejun Chang, Alan Mink, Oliver Slattery, Barry Hershman, and Xiao Tang, "Experimental
demonstration of an active quantum key distribution network with over Gbps clock synchronization",
IEEE Communications Letters, Vol. 11, No. 12, P.1019, December 2007.
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