Analysis of various Quantum Key Distribution Protocol in Wireless Networks
Shruti R. S. Parmar, Naman Garg, Ankur Kumar · 2025
Quantum Key Distribution is a leading-edge cryptographic technology that influences the fundamentals of physics quantum mechanics to enable the secure exchange of encryption keys, establishing peerless levels of confidentiality and aversion against eavesdropping. Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) protocols have been hinged on proceeding in the field of quantum cryptography, guaranteeing safer communication in the existence of adversaries. This paper lays out the comparative survey of some important QKD protocols which are BB84, E91, TF, CV, MDI, COW DPS and SARG04. Each protocol has its unique advantages, characteristics, and limitations, making them appropriate for their different deployment environmental areas. BB84 works on the principle of polarization state and E91 works on entanglement. Both are good at providing robust security under various attack models. To overcome the distance limitations of traditional QKD protocols Twin-Field protocol is a way better that attain more advanced performance in long-distance communication. In Continuous Variable QKD, the requirement of detectors turns out to be lower at the practical levels. Trusted detectors are abolished in MDI-QKD, intensifying the security against the detector side-channel attacks. Coherent One-Way QKD powers up the key rates by employing the encoding in time-bin and phase coherence. Differential Phase Shift-QKD targeted on differential phase shifts for providing robustness against definite types of attack. Finally, Photon number splitting (PNS) attacks get resistance from the SARG04 QKD protocol making it more secure way in a practical framework. In this paper, we compare the performances of these protocols in terms of key rates, error tolerance, security, implementation challenges, advantages, limitations, and feasibility in the real world that are offering perception into their capability for future quantum communication networks.