Custom hardware to eliminate bottlenecks in QKD throughput performance

Alan Mink

doi:10.1117/12.733136

10 September 2007 Custom hardware to eliminate bottlenecks in QKD throughput performance

Alan Mink

Proceedings Volume 6780, Quantum Communications Realized; 678014 (2007) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.733136
Event: Optics East, 2007, Boston, MA, United States

Abstract

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) high-speed quantum key distribution (QKD) system was designed to include custom hardware to support the generation and management of gigabit data streams. As our photonics improved our software sifting algorithm couldn't keep up with the amount of data generated. To eliminate this problem we implemented the sifting algorithm into our programmable chip (FPGA) hardware, gaining a factor of 50x improvement in the sifting capacity rate. As we increased the distance and speed of our QKD systems, we discovered a number of other performance bottlenecks in our custom hardware. We discuss those bottlenecks along with a new custom hardware design that will alleviate them, resulting in an order of magnitude increase in capacity of secret key generation rate.

Citation Download Citation

Alan Mink "Custom hardware to eliminate bottlenecks in QKD throughput performance", Proc. SPIE 6780, Quantum Communications Realized, 678014 (10 September 2007); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.733136

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available