Photon level crosstalk between parallel fibers installed in urban area

Abstract

We estimate the channel characteristics of field-installed dark fibers at single photon levels for quantum key distribution (QKD). Measured fibers are telecom single-mode dark fibers over 45 km connecting a center and suburbs of Tokyo. Their total losses are about 14dB, and 50% of the whole lengths are aerial lines. We find that stray light from other public internet fibers is dominant and crosstalk occurs at bending points in laying cables. These results mean the crosstalk from public networks can increase the bit error rate in the QKD system, and imply an underlying information leakage through an adjacent covered-fiber.

9 pages

References in corpus (3)

• Continuous operation of high bit rate quantum key distribution
• Ultra fast quantum key distribution over a 97 km installed telecom fiber with wavelength-division multiplexing clock synchronization
• Multi-channel SNSPD system with high detection efficiency at telecommunication wavelength

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Field test of quantum key distribution in the Tokyo QKD Network
• Field and long-term demonstration of a wide area quantum key distribution network
• Optical time domain reflectometry with low noise waveguide-coupled superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors
• Countermeasure against tailored bright illumination attack for DPS-QKD
• Space-division multiplexed phase compensation for quantum communication: concept and field demonstration
• Crosstalk Analysis in Quantum Networks: Detection and Localization Insights with photon counting OTDR