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5G network slicing with QKD and quantum-safe security

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Wright, P 
White, C 
Pegon, JS 
Menchetti, M 

Abstract

We demonstrate how the 5G network slicing model can be extended to address data security requirements. In this work we demonstrate two different slice configurations, with different encryption requirements, representing two diverse use-cases for 5G networking: namely, an enterprise application hosted at a metro network site, and a content delivery network. We create a modified software-defined networking (SDN) orchestrator which calculates and provisions network slices according to the requirements, including encryption backed by quantum key distribution (QKD), or other methods. Slices are automatically provisioned by SDN orchestration of network resources, allowing selection of encrypted links as appropriate, including those which use standard Diffie-Hellman key exchange, QKD and quantum-resistant algorithms (QRAs), as well as no encryption at all. We show that the set-up and tear-down times of the network slices takes of the order of 1-2 minutes, which is an order of magnitude improvement over manually provisioning a link today.

Description

Keywords

4006 Communications Engineering, 40 Engineering, 4009 Electronics, Sensors and Digital Hardware

Journal Title

Journal of Optical Communications and Networking

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1943-0620
1943-0639

Volume Title

13

Publisher

Optical Society of America

Rights

All rights reserved
Sponsorship
EPSRC (via University of York) (EP/M013472/1)
EPSRC (via University of York) (EP/T001011/1)
EPSRC (via University College London (UCL)) (EP/S028854/1)