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Field experiment on a robust hierarchical metropolitan quantum cryptography network

  • Articles/Quantum Information
  • Published:
Chinese Science Bulletin

Abstract

A hierarchical metropolitan quantum cryptography network upon the inner-city commercial telecom fiber cables is reported in this paper. The seven-user network contains a four-node backbone net with one node acting as the subnet gateway, a two-user subnet and a single-fiber access link, which is realized by the Faraday-Michelson interferometer set-ups. The techniques of the quantum router, optical switch and trusted relay are assembled here to guarantee the feasibility and expandability of the quantum cryptography network. Five nodes of the network are located in the government departments and the secure keys generated by the quantum key distribution network are utilized to encrypt the instant video, sound, text messages and confidential files transmitting between these bureaus. The whole implementation including the hierarchical quantum cryptographic communication network links and the corresponding application software shows a big step toward the practical user-oriented network with a high security level.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Quantum Information (CAS), University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    FangXing Xu, Wei Chen, Shuang Wang, ZhenQiang Yin, Yang Zhang, Yun Liu, Zheng Zhou, YiBo Zhao, HongWei Li, Dong Liu, ZhengFu Han & GuangCan Guo

  2. Electronic Technology Institute, Information Engineering University, Zhengzhou, 450004, China

    HongWei Li

Authors
  1. FangXing Xu
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  2. Wei Chen
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  3. Shuang Wang
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  4. ZhenQiang Yin
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  5. Yang Zhang
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  6. Yun Liu
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  7. Zheng Zhou
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  8. YiBo Zhao
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  9. HongWei Li
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  10. Dong Liu
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  11. ZhengFu Han
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  12. GuangCan Guo
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Wei Chen or ZhengFu Han.

Additional information

Supported by the Wuhu Government and China Telecommunications Corporation, Wuhu Branch, and National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2006CB921900), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 60537020, 60621064) and Innovation Funds of Chinese Academy of Sciences

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Xu, F., Chen, W., Wang, S. et al. Field experiment on a robust hierarchical metropolitan quantum cryptography network. Chin. Sci. Bull. 54, 2991–2997 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-009-0526-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-009-0526-3

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