Soft decoding of short/medium length codes using ordered statistics for quantum key distribution

Quantum key distribution (QKD) is a cryptographic communication protocol that utilizes quantum mechanical properties for provable absolute security against an eavesdropper. The communication is carried between two terminals using random photon polarization states represented through quantum states. Both these terminals are interconnected through disjoint quantum and classical channels. Information reconciliation using delay controlled joint decoding is performed at the receiving terminal. Its performance is characterized using data and error rates. Achieving low error rates is particularly challenging for schemes based on error correcting codes with short code lengths. This article addresses the decoding process using ordered statistics decoding for information reconciliation of both short and medium length Bose–Chaudhuri–Hocquenghem codes over a QKD link. The link’s quantum channel is modeled as a binary symmetric quantum depolarization channel, whereas the classical channel is configured with additive white Gaussian noise. Our results demonstrate the achievement of low bit error rates, and reduced decoding complexity when compared to other capacity achieving codes of similar length and configuration.