BCH-based Slepian-Wolf coding with feedback syndrome decoding for quantum key reconciliation

Abstract

The quantum key reconciliation is an essential step of QKD protocol. Its main objective is to correct the transmission error after the distribution of quantum objects over a quantum channel, where two legitimate parties use a classical interactive communication for agreeing on their common key. This paper presents an alternative quantum key reconciliation method based on the Slepian-Wolf coding scheme with the chosen optimal set of BCH code rates as close to the Slepian-Wolf bound. In the proposed scheme, the BCH decoder is modified by adding one-bit feedback based on syndrome decoding to detect uncorrectable errors whenever the decoding process fails. The performance evaluation of this proposed scheme can achieve the reconciliation efficiency and reduce the cost of interactive communication via an error-free public channel comparable to the well-known reconciliation protocols. It is then suitable to apply for higher-speed discrete-variable QKD applications. © 2012 IEEE.