Skip to content

BB84 QKD algorithm #7898

New issue

Have a question about this project? Sign up for a free GitHub account to open an issue and contact its maintainers and the community.

By clicking “Sign up for GitHub”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy statement. We’ll occasionally send you account related emails.

Already on GitHub? Sign in to your account

Merged
merged 9 commits into from
Nov 8, 2022
133 changes: 133 additions & 0 deletions quantum/bb84.py
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
@@ -0,0 +1,133 @@
#!/usr/bin/env python3
"""
Simulation of the Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) protocol called BB84,
created by Charles Bennett and Gilles Brassard in 1984.

BB84 is a key-distribution protocol that ensures secure key distribution
using qubits instead of classical bits. The generated key is the result
of simulating a quantum circuit. Our algorithm to construct the circuit
is as follows:

Alice generates two binary strings. One encodes the basis for each qubit:

- 0 -> {0,1} basis.
- 1 -> {+,-} basis.

The other encodes the state:

- 0 -> |0> or |+>.
- 1 -> |1> or |->.

Bob also generates a binary string and uses the same convention to choose
a basis for measurement. Based on the following results, we follow the
algorithm below:

X|0> = |1>

H|0> = |+>

HX|0> = |->

1. Whenever Alice wants to encode 1 in a qubit, she applies an
X (NOT) gate to the qubit. To encode 0, no action is needed.

2. Wherever she wants to encode it in the {+,-} basis, she applies
an H (Hadamard) gate. No action is necessary to encode a qubit in
the {0,1} basis.

3. She then sends the qubits to Bob (symbolically represented in
this circuit using wires).

4. Bob measures the qubits according to his binary string for
measurement. To measure a qubit in the {+,-} basis, he applies
an H gate to the corresponding qubit and then performs a measurement.

References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BB84
https://qiskit.org/textbook/ch-algorithms/quantum-key-distribution.html
"""
import numpy as np
import qiskit


def bb84(key_len: int = 8, seed: int | None = None) -> str:
"""
Performs the BB84 protocol using a key made of `key_len` bits.
The two parties in the key distribution are called Alice and Bob.
Args:
key_len: The length of the generated key in bits. The default is 8.

seed: Seed for the random number generator.
Mostly used for testing. Default is None.

Returns:
key: The key generated using BB84 protocol.

>>> bb84(16, seed=0)
'1101101100010000'

>>> bb84(8, seed=0)
'01011011'
"""
# Set up the random number generator.
rng = np.random.default_rng(seed=seed)

# Roughly 25% of the qubits will contribute to the key.
# So we take more than we need.
num_qubits = 6 * key_len
# Measurement basis for Alice's qubits.
alice_basis = rng.integers(2, size=num_qubits)
# The set of states Alice will prepare.
alice_state = rng.integers(2, size=num_qubits)
# Measurement basis for Bob's qubits.
bob_basis = rng.integers(2, size=num_qubits)

# Quantum Circuit to simulate BB84
bb84_circ = qiskit.QuantumCircuit(num_qubits, name="BB84")

# Alice prepares her qubits according to rules above.
for index, _ in enumerate(alice_basis):
if alice_state[index] == 1:
bb84_circ.x(index)
if alice_basis[index] == 1:
bb84_circ.h(index)
bb84_circ.barrier()

# Bob measures the received qubits according to rules above.
for index, _ in enumerate(bob_basis):
if bob_basis[index] == 1:
bb84_circ.h(index)

bb84_circ.barrier()
bb84_circ.measure_all()

# Simulate the quantum circuit.
sim = qiskit.Aer.get_backend("aer_simulator")
# We only need to run one shot because the key is unique.
# Multiple shots will produce the same key.
job = qiskit.execute(bb84_circ, sim, shots=1, seed_simulator=seed)
# Returns the result of measurement.
result = job.result().get_counts(bb84_circ).most_frequent()

# Extracting the generated key from the simulation results.
# Only keep measurement results where Alice and Bob chose the same basis.
gen_key = "".join(
[
result_bit
for alice_basis_bit, bob_basis_bit, result_bit in zip(
alice_basis, bob_basis, result
)
if alice_basis_bit == bob_basis_bit
]
)

# Get final key. Pad with 0 if too short, otherwise truncate.
key = gen_key[:key_len] if len(gen_key) >= key_len else gen_key.ljust(key_len, "0")
return key


if __name__ == "__main__":
print(f"The generated key is : {bb84(8, seed=0)}")
from doctest import testmod

testmod()
4 changes: 2 additions & 2 deletions requirements.txt
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -8,11 +8,11 @@ opencv-python
pandas
pillow
projectq
qiskit; python_version < "3.11"
qiskit
requests
rich
scikit-fuzzy
sklearn
scikit-learn
statsmodels
sympy
tensorflow; python_version < "3.11"
Expand Down