Noise Resilience of Quantum Key Distribution Protocols Secured Against Independent Attacks With One-Way Communication

Abstract

We investigate the resilience to noise of single-qubit quantum key distribution (QKD) protocols in the scenario of security against independent eavesdropping attacks and key distillation based on one-way classical communication. To this end, we introduce a noise-based metric that quantifies the efficiency of QKD protocols. Within this framework, we analyze the maximal noise levels that allow Alice and Bob to asymptotically establish a secure secret key. Using this assumption, we compare the noise tolerance of general single-qubit QKD protocols, in particular the BB84, B92, E91, and six-state protocols. Our main result determines the noise level threshold for QKD allowing one to distill an asymptotically secure secret key. Additionally, we demonstrate that the six-state protocol achieves the greatest resistance to noise while simultaneously yielding a higher post-selection efficiency than the other analyzed single-qubit protocols, confirming its robustness within the considered security model. Finally, we perform an analysis of the proposed noise-based metric and the conventional quantum bit error rate (QBER) metric.