An Efficient Secret Communication Scheme for the Bosonic Wiretap Channel

Abstract

We propose a new secret communication scheme over the bosonic wiretap channel. It uses readily available hardware such as lasers and direct photodetectors. The scheme is based on randomness extractors, pulse-position modulation, and Reed-Solomon codes and is therefore computationally efficient. It is secure against an eavesdropper performing coherent joint measurements on the quantum states it observes. In the low-photon-flow limit, the scheme is asymptotically optimal and achieves the same dominant term as the secrecy capacity of the same channel.