Every business and household rely on internet in this day and age. We are
using electronic devices connected to the Internet. These devices are
generating a considerable amount of data, which is usually transmitted using
public/insecure communication channels. On the one hand, the technological
advancement of universal connectivity brought so much ease for humans’ race
in business, shopping, and financial transactions. The rapid pace of this
technological advancement also introduced several concerns in terms of the
security and secrecy of data. Security researchers developed several
encryption algorithms that are in use to ensure the safety and confidentiality
of data. The mathematical difficulty of prime factorisation is the fundamental
element of modern encryption algorithms, and they require a considerable
amount of processing power to reverse engineer (or break) these algorithms.
Scientists and government agencies are trying to build quantum computers to
solve some complex problems. These problems include prime factorisation of
large numbers, a critical factor in the field of cryptography. Quantum
computers are much more potent because of their nature. It processes
information by using laws of quantum. The successful development of quantum computers will pit the security and secrecy of our data at risk because
it is trivial for the quantum computer to break the currently used encryption
algorithms. Bearing this in mind, Research have started working on systems
that will provide secure communications in the age of quantum computing.
Considering the importance of quantum physics-based communication
systems, we have some working examples of these systems, which are called
quantum key distribution systems (QKD). These system uses quantum
physics to transmit quantum states from one party to another. In case of the
presence of Eavesdropping, the whole system will be disturbed, letting both
parties know the existence of eve. QKD systems have some success and have
different protocols, but until now, they have a very long way to go. When these
systems are mature enough, they will require to work with current internet
infrastructure, which is very costly and brings so much complexity to the
network that it will not be feasible to implement.
This thesis proposes a Multiple Access QKD Network integrated with Internet
infrastructure to addresses these issues of Secure Communication. The
system proposed in this thesis takes existing protocols of data communication,
QKD, along with hardware architecture of communication devices. A QKD
based client and network switch have been designed and developed along
with its operating system to enable multi-access communication in the LAN
environment. A simulation model of the model proposed in this thesis has been
by using OMNet++ simulation framework to test and evaluate the viability of
this model.
The proposed QKD mechanism will reduce the complexity for network
administrators, reduce the cost of implementation for businesses, and ensure
the secrecy and security of the data even in the age of quantum computing.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BRADFORD/oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/19250 |
| Date | January 2019 |
| Creators | Saleem, Faisal |
| Contributors | Kouvatsos, Demetres D., Awan, Irfan U. |
| Publisher | University of Bradford, Faculty of Engineering and Informatics |
| Source Sets | Bradford Scholars |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, doctoral, PhD |
| Rights | <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/3.0/88x31.png" /></a><br />The University of Bradford theses are licenced under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">Creative Commons Licence</a>. |
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