Programmable Quantum Networked Microgrids

• Published in: IEEE transactions on quantum engineering Vol. 1; pp. 1 - 13
• Main Authors: Tang, Zefan, Zhang, Peng, Krawec, Walter O., Jiang, Zimin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE) 2020; IEEE
• Subjects: Cryptography; Data communication; Denial of service attacks; Distributed generation; ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY AND ECONOMY; IP networks; Microgrids; Networked microgrids; Optical receivers; Optical transmitters; Post-processing; Quantum cryptography; quantum key distribution; Software-defined networking; Wireless communication
• ISSN: 2689-1808; 2689-1808
• DOI: 10.1109/TQE.2020.3019738

Quantum key distribution (QKD) provides a potent solution to securely distribute keys for two parties. However, QKD itself is vulnerable to denial of service (DoS) attacks. A flexible and resilient QKD-enabled networked microgrids (NMs) architecture is needed but does not yet exist. In this article, we present a programmable quantum NMs (PQNMs) architecture. It is a novel framework that integrates both QKD and software-defined networking (SDN) techniques capable of enabling scalable, programmable, quantum-engineered, and ultra-resilient NMs. Equipped with a software-defined adaptive post-processing approach, a two-level key pool sharing strategy and an SDN-enabled event-triggered communication scheme, these PQNMs mitigate the impact of DoS attacks through programmable post-processing and secure key sharing among QKD links, a capability unattainable using existing technologies. Through comprehensive evaluations, we validate the benefits of PQNMs and demonstrate the efficacy of the presented strategies under various circumstances. Extensive results provide insightful resources for building QKD-enabled NMs in practice.