Patent ID: 8693691

Claim:
A quantum key distribution (QKD) system comprising first and second systems, the QKD system configured to authenticate the first and second systems with respect to one another based on quantum events transmitted from the first system to the second system, subsequent disclosures, and corresponding identical pre-provisioned authentication keys, wherein each event includes a bit value encoded as a quantum state based on a quantum basis, and wherein the first and second systems each comprise processing circuitry configured to execute: an authentication key manager to modify the corresponding pre-provisioned authentication key based on detection interval information and sifted bases information; an encryption key constructor to construct an encryption key based on a corresponding one of transmitted events and detected events, wherein an encryption key manager of the first system is implemented to discard events of the encryption key based on detection interval information disclosed by the second system; a sifter to discard events of the encryption key based on the sifted bases information, wherein the first system is implemented to determine the sifted basis information based on differences between transmission bases of the first system and detection bases disclosed by the second system, and to disclose sifted bases information pertaining to the detection bases disclosed by the second system; an error detector to compute a measure based on the sifted encryption key, one or more pre-provisioned algorithms, and the modified authentication key, and to disclose the computed measure and determine differences between the computed measure and a corresponding measure disclosed by the other system; and an authenticated encryption key constructor to selectively construct an authenticated encryption key depending on the differences determined by the error detector, and to construct the authenticated encryption key based on one or more pre-provisioned algorithms and the modified authentication key without disclosure or consumption of the pre-provisioned authentication key or the modified authentication key with the other system, wherein construction of the authenticated encryption key signifies authentication of the other system, and wherein the authenticated encryption key is used to encrypt or decrypt messages from the other system.