A practical identity authentication scheme for measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution

Abstract

In cryptography, an identity authentication protocol can be used to identify the legitimation of users in communication. Usually, it is totally irrelative with key distribution protocol. From this point of view, we introduce a novel mutual identity authentication scheme on the basis of measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (MDI-QKD) protocol, which utilizes the monogamous property of the Bell states. As a result, our proposed protocol can achieve identity authentication and key distribution in one round. Besides, we merge the estimation of error rate into the processing of identity authentication, it can make MDI-QKD more efficient. What's more, according to the simulation result, the protocol can work well in a noisy environment. Also due to the property of hash functions, it can be implemented efficiently with software.