The workshop is devoted to all aspects and recent developments of practical QKD.
Quantum Key Distribution is the most advanced application of Quantum Information Science. It reached already the world of commercial implementation. At the same time, fundamental questions remain that might broaden the application spectrum of this basic idea. The workshop is devoted to all aspects of practical QKD, focussing on the latest developments in all its subfields. The workshop will bring together experimentalists and theoreticians who are interested in efficient and practical implementations of quantum key distribution.
The topics of discussion will be:
Side channels in QKD
Side channels attacks are based on information gained from the physical implementation of a cryptosystem. A cryptosystem can be vulnerable to side attacks even if unbreakable in theory. This problem affects both classical and quantum cryptography. The analysis of side channel attacks---which starts with the identification of possible side channels---for quantum cryptography is still in its infancy, and much can be learnt by considering how side channel attacks are dealt with in the classical case.
Market analysis/User scenarios/QKD in classical (security) infrastructure/Standards
While QKD has already reached the level of commercial implementation, its widespread adoption depends on a number of factors and its ability to compete with classical cryptosystems. It is important to understand what is the potential market for its commercialization, in particular the possible user scenarios. To broaden the application of QKD, it is important to integrate the QKD infrastructure with classical (security) infrastructures (in particular, with existing optical networks) and to move beyond the usual point-to-point connections. We will discuss technology related to QKD network topology, integration methods such as the use of wavelength-division-multiplexing, and the important question of standardization of QKD.
Satellite QKD
Satellite QKD may be considered the next big proof-of-principle experiment in QKD. Satellite QKD would make it possible to establish a secret key at distances much larger than those presently possible with ground-based QKD. Satellite QKD requires the collaboration of national and/or international space agencies (e.g., the European Space Agency), and the development of proper hardware. The challenges involved in satellite QKD have induced different groups and researches to join their efforts at a worldwide scale.
Enabling technologies
Quantum key distribution can benefit from advanced signal sources. Another bottleneck in current implementations are detection devices. The state of the art in sources and detectors, focusing on recent important developments will be the central point of the discussion. Other enabling technologies which will be considered are stored ions, repeaters, ...
Software protocols and finite size effects
In concrete implementations, the classical processing deals with a finite amount of data. Correspondingly, real-life protocols must take finite-size effects into account. More in general and more concretely, one key component of QKD is suitable software for control and processing, which must be able to deal with the issues of real-life implementations.
New theoretical scenarios and technologies
In a bounded/noisy storage model, recently it has been shown that some cryptographic primitives, such as bit commitment and oblivious transfer, can be realized. Regarding security proofs, another active direction is that of proving the security of a key without assuming a specific quantum mechanical structure of signals and detectors, but assuming only structure such as the non-signalling condition. Further developments regard the use of carrier of information of higher dimension than qubits and quantum repeaters.
See a picture of the 2010 attendees here.