Generalized Kennedy receivers enhanced CV-QKD in turbulent channels for endogenous security of space-air-ground integrated network✩

Shouye Miao; Mugen Peng; Renzhi Yuan; Bin Cao; Mufei Zhao; Zhifeng Wang

doi:10.1016/j.dcan.2025.12.004

›› 2026, Vol. 12 ›› Issue (2) :332 -342. DOI: 10.1016/j.dcan.2025.12.004

Regular Papers

research-article

Generalized Kennedy receivers enhanced CV-QKD in turbulent channels for endogenous security of space-air-ground integrated network^✩

Author information +

^a State Key Laboratory of Networking and Switching Technology, Beijing University of Post and Telecommunications, Beijing, 100876, China

^b China United Network Communications Group Company Ltd, Beijing, 100033, China

^c School of Computer Science and Engineering, Northeastern University, Shenyang, 110819, China

^d School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 201804, China

^* E-mail address: renzhi.yuan@bupt.edu.cn (R. Yuan).

Shouye Miao received the B.S. degree from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommu-nications in 2000. He is currently pursuing his Ph. D degree in school of information and communication engineering of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications. His research interests include the space air ground integrated communications and communi-cation and networking security.

Mugen Peng received the Ph.D. degree in communication and information systems from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT), Beijing, China, in 2005. He joined BUPT, where he has been the Dean of the School of Information and Communi-cation Engineering since June 2020 and the Deputy Director of the State Key Laboratory of Networking and Switching Technology since October 2018. In 2014, he was an Aca-demic Visiting Fellow with Princeton University, USA. His main research interests include wireless communication theory, radio signal processing, and convex optimizations, with a particular interests in cooperative communication, radio network coding, self organi-zation networking, heterogeneous networking, and cloud communication.

Renzhi Yuan received the B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Tongji University, Shanghai, China in 2011, the M.S. degree in precision instrumen t from Tsinghua Uni-versity, Beijing, China, in 2017, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of British Columbia, Kelowna, BC, Canada in 2021. He is currently a d istin-guished r esearch f ellow in the School of Information and Commu nication Engineering and the State Key Laboratory of Networking and Switching Technology of Beijing Univer-sity of Posts and Telecommunications. His research interests include the space air ground integrated communications, wireless optical communications and quantum communica-tions.

Bin Cao received the Ph.D. degree (Hons.) in communication and information systems from the National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Communications, Uni-versity of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC), in 2014. He was a Re-search Fellow with the National University of Singapore from July 2015 to July 2016. He is currently a Full Professor with the State Key Laboratory of Network and Switching Technology, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT). His research in-terests are in blockchain systems, the Internet of Things, and 5G/6G networks. His awards include the IEEE Outstanding Leadership Award in 2020, the Best Paper Award of Digital Communications and Networks in 2020, the IEEE Technology and Engineering Manage-ment Society (TEMS) MidCareer Award in 2021, and the Best Paper Award of IEEE Internet of Things Journal in 2022. He is the Founding Vice Chair of the Special Interest Group on Wireless Blockchain Networks in the IEEE Cognitive Netwo rks Technical Committee. He has served and continues to serve as an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing and Digital Communications and Networks. He has been a Lead Guest Editor of journals, such as the IEEE Internet of Things Journal, IEEE Communications Magazine, IEEE Network, and IEEE Wireless Communications.

Mufei Zhao received the B.E. degree in communication engineering and Ph.D degree in information and communication engineering from Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT), Harbin, China, in 2018 and 2024. S he is currently an associate professor in School of Com-puter Science and Engineering, Northeastern University, Shenyang, China. Her research interests include information theory, optical communications, and quantum communica-tions.

Zhifeng Wang received the Ph.D. degree from BUPT, Beijing, China, in 2023. He is cur-rently an Assistant Professor with the College of Electronics and Information Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China. His research interests include sate llite communica-tion, edge intelligence, and wireless optical communications.

Show less

History +

PDF

Abstract

Endogenous security in next-generation wireless communication systems attracts increasing attentions in re-cent years. A typical solution to endogenous security problems is the Quantum Key Distribution (QKD), where unconditional security can be achieved thanks to the inherent properties of quantum mechanics. Continuous Variable-Quantum Key Distribution (CV-QKD) enjoys high Secret Key Rate (SKR) and good compatibility with existing optical communication infrastructure. Traditional CV-QKD usually employ coherent receivers to detect coherent states, whose detection performance is restricted to the standard quantum limit. In this paper, we employ a generalized Kennedy receiver called CD-Kennedy receiver to enhance the detection performance of coherent states in turbulent channels, where Equal-Gain Combining (EGC) method is used to combine the out-put of CD-Kennedy receivers. Besides, we derive the SKR of a post-selection based CV-QKD protocol using both CD-Kennedy receiver and homodyne receiver with EGC in turbulent channels. We further propose an equivalent transmittance method to facilitate the calculation of both the Bit-Error Rate (BER) and SKR. Numerical results show that the CD-Kennedy receiver can outperform the homodyne receiver in turbulent channels in terms of both BER and SKR performance. We find that BER and SKR performance advantage of CD-Kennedy receiver over homodyne receiver demonstrate opposite trends as the average transmittance increases, which indicates that two separate system settings should be employed for communication and key distribution purposes. Besides, we also demonstrate that the SKR performance of a CD-Kennedy receiver is much robust than that of a homodyne receiver in turbulent channels.

Keywords

CV-QKD / Endogenous security / Generalized Kennedy receiver / Space-air-ground integrated network / Turbulent channels

Cite this article

Download citation ▾

Shouye Miao, Mugen Peng, Renzhi Yuan, Bin Cao, Mufei Zhao, Zhifeng Wang. Generalized Kennedy receivers enhanced CV-QKD in turbulent channels for endogenous security of space-air-ground integrated network^✩. , 2026, 12(2): 332-342 DOI:10.1016/j.dcan.2025.12.004

登录浏览全文

4963

注册一个新账户忘记密码

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Shouye Miao: Writing-original draft, Investigation, Formal anal-ysis, Data curation; Mugen Peng: Writing-review & editing, Supervi-sion; Renzhi Yuan: Methodology, Funding acquisition, Conceptualiza-tion; Bin Cao: Writing-review & editing, Software, Resources; Mufei Zhao: Writing-review & editing, Visualization; Zhifeng Wang: Writing-review & editing, Resources.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing ﬁnancial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgement

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under No. 62201075 and by BUPT-China Unicom Joint Inno-vation Center under Grant 2025-STHZ-BJYDDX-008.

References

Publishing order | Descend order by publishing year | Descend order by cited within

[1]	J. Wu, Cyberspace Mimic Defense:Generalized Robust Control and Endogenous Se-curity, Springer Nature, 2021.

[2]	Y. Liu, M. Peng, 6G endogenous security: architecture and key technologies, Telecommun. Sci. 36(1)(2020)11-20.

[3]	Z. Wang, B. Cao, C. Liu, C. Xu, L. Zhang, Blockchain-based fog radio access networks: architecture, key technologies, and challenges, Digit. Commun. Netw. 8 (5) (2022) 720-726.

[4]	Y. Zheng, Z. Li, X. Xu, Q. Zhao, Dynamic defenses in cyber security: techniques, methods and challenges, Digit. Commun. Netw. 8 (4) (2022) 422-435.

[5]	X. Wang, L. Jin, Y. Lou, X. Xu, Analysis and application of endogenous wireless security principle for key generation, China Commun. 18 (4) (2021) 99-114.

[6]	L. Zhang, P. Wang, Y. Zhang, Z. Chi, N. Tong, L. Wang, F. Li, An adaptive and robust secret key extraction scheme from high noise wireless channel in IIoT, Digit. Commun. Netw. 9 (4) (2023) 809-816.

[7]	H. Hamdoun, A. Sagheer, Information security through controlled quantum telepor-tation networks, Digit. Commun. Netw. 6 (4) (2020) 463-470.

[8]	M.S. Moreolo, M. Iqbal, A. Villegas, L. Nadal, R. Casellas, R. Muñoz, Continuous-variable quantum key distribution for enabling sustainable secure 6G networks, in: 2024 International Conference on Optical Network Design and Modeling (ONDM), IEEE, 2024, pp. 1-3.

[9]	L. Gyöngyösi, L. Bacsardi, S. Imre, A survey on quantum key distribution, Infocom-mun. J. 11 (2) (2019) 14-21.

[10]	S. Pirandola, U.L. Andersen, Banchi, et al. Advances in quantum cryptography, Adv. Opt. Photonics, 12 (4) (2020) 1012-1236.

[11]	F. Grosshans, P. Grangier, Continuous variable quantum cryptography using coher-ent states, Phys. Rev. Lett. 88 (5) (2002) 057902.

[12]	C. Silberhorn, T.C. Ralph, N. Lütkenhaus, G. Leuchs, Continuous variable quantum cryptography: beating the 3 dB loss limit, Phys. Rev. Lett. 89 (16) (2002) 167901.

[13]	F. Grosshans, G. Van Assche, J. Wenger, R. Brouri, N.J. Cerf, P. Grangier, Quan-tum key distribution using Gaussian-modulated coherent states, Nature 421 (6920) (2003) 238.

[14]	S. Lorenz, N. Korolkova, G. Leuchs, Continuous-variable quantum key distribution using polarization encoding and post selection, Appl. Phys. B 79 (3) (2004) 273-277.

[15]	L. Gyöngyösi, S. Imre, Low-dimensional reconciliation for continuous-variable quan-tum key distribution, Appl. Sci. 8 (1) (2018) 87.

[16]	M. Ghalaii, S. Pirandola, Continuous-variable measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution in free-space channels, Phys. Rev. A 108 (4) (2023) 042621.

[17]	S.-G. Li, C.-L. Li, W.-B. Liu, H.-L. Yin, Z.-B. Chen, Discrete-modulated continuous-variable quantum key distribution in satellite-to-ground communication, Adv. Quan-tum Technol. 7 (8) (2024) 2400140.

[18]	Y. Zhang, Y. Bian, Z. Li, S. Yu, H. Guo, Continuous-variable quantum key distribution system: past, present and future, Appl. Phys. Rev. 11 (1) (2024) 011318.

[19]	X. Liu, C. Xu, S.X. Ng, L. Hanzo, OTFS-based CV-QKD Systems for doubly selective THz channels, IEEE Trans. Commun. 73 (8) (2025) 6274-6289.

[20]	X.-T. Zheng, Q.-F. Zhang, J. Ling, G.-C. Guo, Z.-F. Han, Free-space continuous-variable quantum key distribution under high background noise, npj Quantum Inf. 11 (1) (2025) 52.

[21]	Z. Yao, M. Li, Z. Wu, T. Wang, M. Cvijietc, Continuous-variable measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution over fluctuated free space quantum channels, Opt. Commun. 575 (2025) 131294.

[22]	C. Wittmann, U.L. Andersen, M. Takeoka, D. Sych, G. Leuchs, Demonstration of coherent-state discrimination using a displacement-controlled photon-number-resolving detector, Phys. Rev. Lett. 104 (10) (2010) 100505.

[23]	M. Zhao, R. Yuan, J. Cheng, S. Han, Security of binary modulated continuous vari-able quantum key distribution using optimally displaced threshold detection, IEEE Commun. Lett. 25 (4) (2020) 1089-1093.

[24]	M. Zhao, R. Yuan, J. Cheng, S. Han, Post-selection based generalized Kennedy re-ceiver for discriminating binary coherent states, in: 2021 International Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing (IWCMC), IEEE, 2021, pp. 1231-1235.

[25]	M. Zhao, R. Yuan, C. Feng, S. Han, J. Cheng, Security of coherent-state quantum key distribution using displacement receiver, IEEE J. Sel. Areas Commun. 42 (7) (2024) 1871-1884.

[26]	X. Zhu, J.M. Kahn, Free-space optical communication through atmospheric turbu-lence channels, IEEE Trans. Commun. 50 (8) (2002) 1293-1300.

[27]	I.A. Burenkov, M.V. Jabir, S.V. Polyakov, Practical quantum-enhanced receivers for classical communication, AVS Quantum Sci. 3 (2) (2021) 025301.

[28]	C.W. Helstrom, Quantum detection and estimation theory, J. Stat. Phys. 1 (2) (1969) 231-252.

[29]	C.W. Helstrom, J.W.S. Liu, J.P. Gordon, Quantum-mechanical communication the-ory, Proc. IEEE 58 (10) (1970) 1578-1598.

[30]	R.S. Kennedy, A near-optimum receiver for the binary coherent state quantum chan-nel, Q. Prog. Rep. 108 (1973) 219-225.

[31]	S.J. Dolinar, An optimum receiver for the binary coherent state quantum channel, Q. Prog. Rep. 111 (1973) 115-120.

[32]	R.L. Cook, P.J. Martin, J.M. Geremia, Optical coherent state discrimination using a closed-loop quantum measurement, Nature 446 (7137) (2007) 774.

[33]	C. Wittmann, M. Takeoka, K.N. Cassemiro, M. Sasaki, G. Leuchs, U.L. Andersen, Demonstration of near-optimal discrimination of optical coherent states, Phys. Rev. Lett. 101 (21) (2008) 210501.

[34]	M. Takeoka, M. Sasaki, Discrimination of the binary coherent signal: Gaussian-operation limit and simple non-Gaussian near-optimal receivers, Phys. Rev. A 78 (2) (2008) 022320.

[35]	F.E. Becerra, J. Fan, A. Migdall, Photon number resolution enables quantum receiver for realistic coherent optical communications, Nat. Photonics 9 (1) (2014) 48-53.

[36]	R. Yuan, M. Zhao, S. Han, J. Cheng, Kennedy receiver using threshold detection and optimized displacement under thermal noise, IEEE Commun. Lett. 24 (6) (2020) 1313-1317.

[37]	R. Yuan, M. Zhao, S. Han, J. Cheng, Optimally displaced threshold detection for discriminating binary coherent states using imperfect devices, IEEE Trans. Commun. 69 (4) (2020) 2546-2556.

[38]	R. Yuan, J. Cheng, Free-space optical quantum communications in turbulent chan-nels with receiver diversity, IEEE Trans. Commun. 68 (9) (2020) 5706-5717.

[39]	M. Zhao, R. Yuan, C. Feng, S. Han, J. Cheng, Optimally displaced threshold de-tection for TPSK modulated coherent states, IEEE Trans. Commun. 71 (12) (2023) 7189-7205.

[40]	R.J. Glauber, The quantum theory of optical coherence, Phys. Rev. 130 (6) (1963) 2529.

[41]	R.J. Glauber, Coherent and incoherent states of the radiation field, Phys. Rev. 131(6) (1963) 2766.

[42]	A.A. Semenov, W. Vogel, Quantum light in the turbulent atmosphere, Phys. Rev. A 80 (2) (2009) 021802.

[43]	R. Yuan, J. Cheng, Closed-form density matrices of free-space optical quantum com-munications in turbulent channels, IEEE Commun. Lett. 24 (5) (2020) 1072-1076.

[44]	B.R. Cobb, R. Rumí, A. Salmerón, Approximating the distribution of a sum of log-normal random variables, Stat. Comput. 16 (3) (2012) 293-308.

[45]	M. Heid, N. Lütkenhaus, Eﬃciency of coherent-state quantum cryptography in the presence of loss: influence of realistic error correction, Phys. Rev. A 73 (5) (2006) 052316.