APA
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Liege, T., Lognoné, P., Schiavon, M., Lim, C., Conan, J.-M., Diamanti, E., & Dequal, D. (2025). Analysis of untrusted-node quantum key distribution from a geostationary satellite. Quantum Science and Technology. https://doi.org/ https://doi.org/10.1088/2058-9565/ae42e2
Chicago/Turabian
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Liege, Thomas, Perrine Lognoné, Matteo Schiavon, C. Lim, Jean-Marc Conan, Eleni Diamanti, and D. Dequal. “Analysis of Untrusted-Node Quantum Key Distribution from a Geostationary Satellite.” Quantum Science and Technology (2025).
MLA
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Liege, Thomas, et al. “Analysis of Untrusted-Node Quantum Key Distribution from a Geostationary Satellite.” Quantum Science and Technology, 2025, doi: https://doi.org/10.1088/2058-9565/ae42e2.
BibTeX Click to copy
@article{thomas2025a,
title = {Analysis of untrusted-node quantum key distribution from a geostationary satellite},
year = {2025},
journal = {Quantum Science and Technology},
doi = { https://doi.org/10.1088/2058-9565/ae42e2},
author = {Liege, Thomas and Lognoné, Perrine and Schiavon, Matteo and Lim, C. and Conan, Jean-Marc and Diamanti, Eleni and Dequal, D.}
}
In pursuit of a global quantum key distribution (QKD) network, a service based on untrusted nodes on geostationary satellites could offer wide coverage, continuous operation, and enhanced security compared to the trusted node alternative. Although this scenario has been studied for entanglement-based protocols, such an approach would require large-area telescopes both on the ground and in space. In this work, we analyze the performance of two QKD protocols well adapted to this scenario, namely twin-field (TF) and mode-pairing (MP) QKD, which exhibit high resilience to high-loss channels. Leveraging an in-depth simulation of communication channels corrected with adaptive optics, we assess the expected secret key rates for both protocols in a configuration involving two 50 cm telescopes on board the satellite and ground-based telescopes ranging from 20 cm to 1 m in aperture. Our results show that, in the best case and considering realistic detectors, it is possible to achieve secret key rates on the order of a few hundred bit/s for both TF and MP-QKD. We show, notably, that secret key generation is potentially feasible even with 20 cm ground telescopes, highlighting the high scalability potential of such a configuration.