Tree-topology-based quantum-key-relay strategy for secure multicast services
Kai Wei Dong, Yongli Zhao, Tiancheng Yang, Yajie Li, Avishek Nag, Xiaosong Yu, Jie Zhang · Journal of Optical Communications and Networking · 2020
Secure multicast services (SMSs), such as video conferences and multi-site backup of data centers, need to adopt multicast technology to transmit data among multiple parties with high demand for security. Quantum key distribution (QKD) is a promising technology for distributing information through theoretically secure secret keys. However, up to now, QKD has mainly focused on point-to-point distribution of quantum keys. In this study, what we believe to be a novel node structure is designed to support key multi-relay, and accordingly, a point-to-multipoint key relay scheme is put forward. An auxiliary topology is constructed to dynamically describe the connection and the weight between any two QKD nodes. Based on the auxiliary topology, a key-relay-tree-based routing-and-key assignment (KRT-RKA) algorithm is proposed and evaluated in static and dynamic scenarios. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm has a higher security probability than the traditional scheme without a KR tree. Moreover, the performance of the KRT-RKA algorithm will be significantly improved as the number of destination nodes increases. In addition, the security of SMSs can be improved by increasing the density of the node distribution when KRT-RKA is applied.