QuIKS: Near-Zero Latency Key Supply with Adaptive Buffering for Resource-Efficient Quantum Key Distribution Networks

2026-04-10

AI Summary

This work addresses the challenge of achieving near-zero key delivery latency while maintaining resource efficiency in quantum key distribution (QKD) networks, where conventional key caching schemes rely on heuristic strategies that struggle to balance these competing demands. To this end, we propose QuIKS, an adaptive caching–based instant key supply framework. We first derive an analytical model that characterizes the minimum cache capacity required to guarantee near-zero latency, and then design a lightweight two-stage control algorithm that dynamically coordinates key relay requests with cache size in real time, adapting to varying application workloads and network conditions. Experimental evaluation on a real-world QKD platform demonstrates that QuIKS achieves near-zero key supply latency while reducing cache capacity by over an order of magnitude—more than 90% lower than the state-of-the-art approach.

Technology Category

• Machine Learning: Quantum Machine Learning
• Search and Optimization: Distributed Search
• Constraint Satisfaction and Optimization: Distributed CSP/Optimization

Application Category

• Security and Privacy: Large-scale security measurements
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Incentives in network design for Web infrastructures and ecosystems
• Graph Algorithms and Modeling for the Web: Querying, indexing, and retrieval in Web-related graphs

Abstract

Quantum key distribution (QKD) networks provide information-theoretically secure keys for distant parties, emerging as a vital alternative to classical cryptography infrastructures threatened by quantum computing. In QKD networks, the immediacy of key supply service is crucial to the security and performance of applications, as their data must be encrypted before transmission. While key buffering can enable instant key supply services, existing schemes rely on heuristic solutions that incur prohibitive key resource consumption, thus significantly hindering practical deployment. To address this issue, we propose QuIKS, an instant key supply scheme based on adaptive buffering, offering the dominant advantage of near-zero key supply latency while consuming ultra-low key resources (i.e., ultra-low buffer size). Specifically, it is built upon a novel analytical model that determines the minimum buffer size required to guarantee near-zero-latency key supply performance. Guided by this model, QuIKS introduces a lightweight two-phase control algorithm that dynamically determines key relaying requests and adjusts the buffer size by probing real-time application patterns and network conditions. Experiments on a real QKD network testbed demonstrate that QuIKS achieves near-zero key supply latency while providing a more than 10-fold reduction in key buffer size compared to state-of-the-art schemes.

Problem

• Quantum Key Distribution
• Key Supply Latency
• Key Buffering
• Resource Efficiency
• QKD Networks

Innovation

• adaptive buffering
• near-zero latency
• quantum key distribution networks
• key supply
• resource efficiency