Toward a Complete Software Stack to Integrate Quantum Key Distribution in a Cloud Environment

• Main Authors: Ignazio Pedone, Andrea Atzeni, Daniele Canavese, Antonio Lioy
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 2021-01-01
• Series: IEEE Access
• Subjects: Quantum cryptography; QKD; quantum communication; softwarised infrastructures
• Online Access: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9505594/

The coming advent of Quantum Computing promises to jeopardize current communications security, undermining the effectiveness of traditional public-key based cryptography. Different strategies (Post-Quantum or Quantum Cryptography) have been proposed to address this problem. Many techniques and algorithms based on quantum phenomena have been presented in recent years; the most relevant example is the introduction of Quantum Key Distribution (QKD). This approach allows to exchange cryptographic keys among parties and does not suffer from the development of quantum computation. Problems arise when this technique has to be deployed and combined with modern distributed infrastructures that heavily depend on cloud and virtualisation paradigms. This paper addresses the issue by presenting a new software stack that effortlessly introduces QKD in such environments. This software stack allows for agnostic integration, monitoring, and management of QKD, independent from a specific vendor or technology. Furthermore, a QKD simulator is presented, designed, and tested. This latter contribution is suitable as a low-level testing device, as an independent software module to check QKD protocols, and as a testbed to identify future practical enhancements.