Selective Placement of Hollow-Core Fibers for QKD and Classical Communication Coexistence

2026-05-11

AI Summary

This work addresses the high cost and excessive quantum hardware requirements associated with coexisting quantum key distribution (QKD) and classical communication in existing optical networks. To tackle this challenge, the authors propose a selective deployment strategy for hollow-core fiber tailored to metropolitan-scale networks. By jointly optimizing hollow-core fiber placement, QKD–classical channel coexistence modeling, and network topology analysis, the approach achieves substantial performance gains while upgrading only approximately 40% of the network links. Experimental results on representative metropolitan topologies demonstrate that the proposed method can reduce the required number of quantum modules by up to 49%, effectively balancing deployment cost and system performance. This strategy offers a practical and scalable pathway toward large-scale QKD integration in real-world optical infrastructure.

Abstract

We investigate the benefits of partially upgrading optical networks with hollow-core fibers for QKD-classical communication coexistence. Results show that upgrading 40% of links in a metro topology can reduce the number of quantum modules by up to 49%.

Problem

• hollow-core fibers
• QKD
• classical communication coexistence
• optical networks
• quantum modules

Innovation

• hollow-core fiber
• QKD-classical coexistence
• selective fiber upgrade
• quantum module reduction
• metro optical network