Dynamic Group Multi-party Quantum Key Agreement
guo-jyun zeng2018, Scientific Reports
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Abstract
This paper presents a novel dynamic group multi-party Quantum Key Agreement (DGMQKA) protocol, achieved by a multicast transmission method. The proposed method is able to achieve arbitrary number of groups and members under the same resources. In addition, it can be dynamically adjusted by joining a new member, combining two groups into one group, revoking an old member and dividing one group into two groups, for different and complex situations. Furthermore, the proposed protocol can be of help to research into Quantum Secret Sharing (QSS), which it complements. The security analysis shows that the proposed protocol can resist both external and internal attacks. In consumption comparison, the proposed protocol using the multicast transmission method is more effective than other current MQKA protocols. In 1984, Bennett and Brassard 1 proposed the first quantum key distribution (QKD, also called BB84) protocol. Its security is based on the quantum physics and guarantees the unconditional security 2-6 , not only theoretically but also in actual implementation. Furthermore, the superposition and entanglement properties enable researchers to develop the quantum algorithm required to crack the famous RSA cryptosystem by quantum parallel computing 7-9. A quantum algorithm can be a potent weapon to threaten classical cryptography. It enables researchers to develop quantum cryptography, which offers security based on physical laws rather than computational complexity, to defend against attacks from quantum computers. In addition, other interesting applications differing from the past are developed, such as quantum dense coding 10 and teleportation 11. So far, three interesting branches of quantum cryptography are Quantum Key Distribution (QKD), Quantum Secure Direct Communication (QSDC), and Quantum Secret Sharing (QSS). QKD: After BB84, in 1991, Ekert proposed the first QKD protocol (also called E91) based on EPR pairs. Then, Bennett et al. 12 proved that E91 is equivalent to BB84 1. Bennett 13 later proposed using non-orthogonal bases and two qubit states to implement QKD in 1992. In addition, other researchers developed some new protocols for enhancing the performance of QKD protocol: Lo et al. 14 enhanced the key rate, Deng and Long 15 improved the key usage rate by controlling the order rearrangement technique; they 16 also saved the storage space by bidirectional QKD in 2004. However, a QKD protocol is not only a protocol design; it also needs to consider implementation. Therefore, more and more researchers have discussed the implementation issue, such as imperfect single-qubit sources 17 , noise channel 18 , and imperfect device 6,19,20. QSDC: Furthermore, another novel branch of quantum cryptography, which allows the agents can transmit secret messages by using quantum resources directly. Long and Liu 21. proposed first QSDC protocol by using entangled qubits with twice transmissions and full transmission performance in February 2002. Then Boström and Felbinger 22 proposed famous QSDC protocol nowadays, called ping-pong protocol in October 2002. Nguyen 23 designed a QSDC protocol, it allowed two agents exchange their secret message at once transmission, in 2004, called quantum dialogue or bidirectional QSDC (BQSDC) protocol. Gao et al. 24 proposed a controlled QSDC (CQSDC) protocol based on quantum teleportation 11 , in 2005, which adds a controller to help the receiver to decrypt the secret message but he cannot know anything about the message. The role of a controller can be mapped as a telecommunications company who should provide the service but should not monitor the transmission. Furthermore, Jin et al. 25 proposed a multi-party QSDC (MQSDC) protocol, which allows all agents to exchange their secret message, in 2006, simultaneously. In the same year, Man and Xia 26 combined features of BQSDC and CQSDC to design controlled bidirectional QSDC (CBQSDC) protocol. On the other hand, another group of researchers also focused on the implementation such as the development of QKD. Long and Liu 27,28 proposed two QSDC protocol based on entangled state and single-qubit, respectively, and they are feasible with the present-day technique in 2003. Most recently, Zhang et al. 29 implemented Long's 21,27 QSDC protocol with quantum memory to achieve approximately 90% for entanglement decoding for the experiment.
