Chapter 8
Conclusion and Outlook
The fruitful combination of concepts and ideas from different fields of study, as
well as the practical implications for the security of our data, have made quantum
cryptography a very active research topic in recent years. In this context a major
role is played by quantum key distribution (QKD) [1], which enables informationtheoretic secure communication between two users. In a world evermore demanding
for connectedness, the need for an equally-secure communication established among
several users is going to be satisfied by quantum conference key agreement (CKA) [2].
CKA is only one aspect of a wider vision on how quantum communication will
change our lives, with the quantum internet as its most ambitious representative [3,
4]. Within this view, future quantum networks will provide on-demand entanglement
to any subset of users in the network, allowing the execution of quantum-enabled
tasks unachievable with classical means. Prominent examples include: blind quantum
computing (the distribution of quantum computations to remote quantum servers,
without them knowing the nature of the computation) [5, 6], clocks synchronization
[7], and quantum anonymous voting [8, 9].
The recent developments illustrated in this book have contributed to driving the
transition of quantum-secured communication beyond the two-user paradigm, from
bipartite QKD to CKA.
As a matter of fact, we presented the generalization of the QKD security definitions
to the multipartite scenario, allowing the analysis of CKA schemes in the finite-key
regime [10]. We discussed in detail two CKA protocols [10, 11], provided insight on
their security proof and benchmarked their performance with other CKA schemes
and with the iteration of bipartite QKD protocols.
Despite the book being mainly focused on theoretical aspects, we provided a
brief overview of the state-of-the-art experiments on QKD and CKA. Moreover,
we described in detail the first experimental implementation of a CKA [12] and
highlighted the challenges in implementing other CKA schemes.
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
F. Grasselli, Quantum Cryptography, Quantum Science and Technology,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64360-7_8
149
Conclusion and Outlook
The fruitful combination of concepts and ideas from different fields of study, as
well as the practical implications for the security of our data, have made quantum
cryptography a very active research topic in recent years. In this context a major
role is played by quantum key distribution (QKD) [1], which enables informationtheoretic secure communication between two users. In a world evermore demanding
for connectedness, the need for an equally-secure communication established among
several users is going to be satisfied by quantum conference key agreement (CKA) [2].
CKA is only one aspect of a wider vision on how quantum communication will
change our lives, with the quantum internet as its most ambitious representative [3,
4]. Within this view, future quantum networks will provide on-demand entanglement
to any subset of users in the network, allowing the execution of quantum-enabled
tasks unachievable with classical means. Prominent examples include: blind quantum
computing (the distribution of quantum computations to remote quantum servers,
without them knowing the nature of the computation) [5, 6], clocks synchronization
[7], and quantum anonymous voting [8, 9].
The recent developments illustrated in this book have contributed to driving the
transition of quantum-secured communication beyond the two-user paradigm, from
bipartite QKD to CKA.
As a matter of fact, we presented the generalization of the QKD security definitions
to the multipartite scenario, allowing the analysis of CKA schemes in the finite-key
regime [10]. We discussed in detail two CKA protocols [10, 11], provided insight on
their security proof and benchmarked their performance with other CKA schemes
and with the iteration of bipartite QKD protocols.
Despite the book being mainly focused on theoretical aspects, we provided a
brief overview of the state-of-the-art experiments on QKD and CKA. Moreover,
we described in detail the first experimental implementation of a CKA [12] and
highlighted the challenges in implementing other CKA schemes.
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
F. Grasselli, Quantum Cryptography, Quantum Science and Technology,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64360-7_8
149