Gigahertz-clocked quantum key distribution in passive optical networks
Verónica Fernández, Robert J. Collins, Karen J. Gordon, Paul D. Townsend, Gerald S. Buller · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 2007
In this paper we demonstrate the application of multi-user quantum key distribution (QKD) to typical broadband fibrebased passive optical access links to metropolitan area networks. We propose a technique to utilize the currently unused 850nm waveband in standard telecommunications fiber for QKD in two network architectures. Net bit rates of up to 100's of kilobits-1 were achieved for each receiver, depending on the network topology. The transmission distances between sender and receivers were compatible with the typical span of optical access links ( ≤ 10km).