IC-QKD: An Information-Centric Quantum Key Distribution Network

Current and next-generation networks are threatened by emerging attacks from quantum computers. To protect these services against quantum threat, quantum key distribution (QKD) using optical networks is being investigated and tested as a safe countermeasure to provide information-theoretic security. Although recent studies confirm the feasibility of QKD over optical networks, two main technical challenges, among others, remain unaddressed: the limited rate of generating keys requires efficient key distribution to secure the numerous applications, and as key requests from applications can be characterized by different importance, QKD networks need a key distribution platform that accounts for such diversity. To address these challenges, we propose to incorporate the paradigm of Information-Centric Networking (ICN) within the QKD process, and we describe a novel information-centric quantum key distribution (IC-QKD) network for efficient and differentiated key distribution. We first design a semantic-based key distribution scheme, which leverages ICN to incorporate the knowledge of application importance in QKD and to enhance the resource efficiency of QKD by decoupling the sender from its receiver. We then propose an in-network key-caching scheme, which is especially advantageous for multi-cast applications, as keys can be cached and reused for multiple users of a multicast group to accelerate key distribution. Finally, we design a semantic-based application analysis for semantic-based key caching and distribution, which serves various applications with different priorities. Simulation results show that the proposed QKD network can reach up to about 16 percent increase in the capability of serving key requests with respect to the existing QKD network.