GHz-rate polarization-based QKD system for fiber and satellite applications
Fuente:
arXiv
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2026
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1866917260768051200 |
|---|---|
| author | Bolaños, Matías Rubén Rossi, Edoardo Berra, Federico De Toni, Alberto Karakosta-Amarantidou, Ilektra Lawo, Daniel Christian Agnesi, Costantino Avesani, Marco Stanco, Andrea Vedovato, Francesco Villoresi, Paolo Vallone, Giuseppe |
| author_facet | Bolaños, Matías Rubén Rossi, Edoardo Berra, Federico De Toni, Alberto Karakosta-Amarantidou, Ilektra Lawo, Daniel Christian Agnesi, Costantino Avesani, Marco Stanco, Andrea Vedovato, Francesco Villoresi, Paolo Vallone, Giuseppe |
| contents | Quantum key distribution (QKD) leverages the principles of quantum mechanics to exchange a secret key between two parties. Despite its promising features, QKD also faces several practical challenges such as transmission loss, noise in quantum channels and finite key size effects. Addressing these issues is crucial for the large-scale deployment of QKD in fiber and satellite networks.
In this paper, we present a 1550 nm QKD system realizing the efficient-BB84 protocol and based on the iPOGNAC scheme. The system achieved repetition rates up to 1.5~GHz and showed an intrinsic QBER of $\sim 0.4\%$. The system was first tested on a laboratory fiber link and then on an intermodal link in the field, consisting of both deployed fiber and a 620 m free-space channel. The experiment was performed in daylight conditions, exploiting the Qubit4Sync synchronization protocol. With this trial, we achieved a new benchmark for free-space BB84 QKD systems by generating a sustained secret key rate (SKR) above 1~Mb/s for 1 hour. Finally, exploiting a recently discovered finite-size bound, we achieved a secure key rate of about 10 Mb/s at low losses (5 dB), and around 6.5~kb/s in the high-loss (38.5 dB), low block length ($N=10^4$) regime. The latter results demonstrate the system's suitability for highly lossy and time-constrained scenarios such as QKD from low Earth orbit satellites. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_08908 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | GHz-rate polarization-based QKD system for fiber and satellite applications Bolaños, Matías Rubén Rossi, Edoardo Berra, Federico De Toni, Alberto Karakosta-Amarantidou, Ilektra Lawo, Daniel Christian Agnesi, Costantino Avesani, Marco Stanco, Andrea Vedovato, Francesco Villoresi, Paolo Vallone, Giuseppe Quantum Physics Quantum key distribution (QKD) leverages the principles of quantum mechanics to exchange a secret key between two parties. Despite its promising features, QKD also faces several practical challenges such as transmission loss, noise in quantum channels and finite key size effects. Addressing these issues is crucial for the large-scale deployment of QKD in fiber and satellite networks. In this paper, we present a 1550 nm QKD system realizing the efficient-BB84 protocol and based on the iPOGNAC scheme. The system achieved repetition rates up to 1.5~GHz and showed an intrinsic QBER of $\sim 0.4\%$. The system was first tested on a laboratory fiber link and then on an intermodal link in the field, consisting of both deployed fiber and a 620 m free-space channel. The experiment was performed in daylight conditions, exploiting the Qubit4Sync synchronization protocol. With this trial, we achieved a new benchmark for free-space BB84 QKD systems by generating a sustained secret key rate (SKR) above 1~Mb/s for 1 hour. Finally, exploiting a recently discovered finite-size bound, we achieved a secure key rate of about 10 Mb/s at low losses (5 dB), and around 6.5~kb/s in the high-loss (38.5 dB), low block length ($N=10^4$) regime. The latter results demonstrate the system's suitability for highly lossy and time-constrained scenarios such as QKD from low Earth orbit satellites. |
| title | GHz-rate polarization-based QKD system for fiber and satellite applications |
| topic | Quantum Physics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.08908 |