Grant: Strategic Projects - Group

In an increasingly connected and globalized world, the notion of security is an imperative, therefore making cryptography a very important research field. In the past two decades, it has been suggested and successfully demonstrated that cryptographic systems that rely on the fundamental laws of quantum physics to ensure the secrecy of transmitted messages offer unprecedented levels of security compared to classical cryptosystems. Research in this field, however, has mainly focused on individual point-to-point links, whose performance in terms of range and user connectivity is inherently limited by the nature of the transmission medium and the implemented protocols. These limitations can be overcome with the advent of quantum cryptography networks. It is therefore now essential to study such networks from both a fundamental and practical point of view, and explore the new capabilities that these networks can offer. With this project we push quantum secured networks along three frontiers. The first is the optimization of quantum key distribution networks related to their structure and functionality to reduce the costs of deployment. Further, we develop crytographic protocols making use of the given quantum and classical resources to broaden the use of the hardware installed for these networks. Finally, we work on the framework to proper embed of this emerging technology into existing security structures, including securing proper functionality of the new devices.