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Grant support

This work has been partially supported by project CVQuCo, Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad, Spain, Project No. TEC2015-70406-R, MINECO/FEDER UE, Comunidad Autonoma de Madrid, project Quantum Information Technologies Madrid, QUITEMAD+ S2013/ICE-2801, and by ACINO European H2020 project, http://www.acino.eu, grant number 645127.

Analysis of institutional authors

Aguado, AlejandroAuthorMartinez-Mateo, JesusAuthorMartin, VicenteAuthor

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June 9, 2019
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Virtual Network Function Deployment and Service Automation to Provide End-to-End Quantum Encryption

Publicated to:Journal Of Optical Communications And Networking. 10 (4): 421-430 - 2018-04-01 10(4), DOI: 10.1364/JOCN.10.000421

Authors: Aguado, Alejandro; Lopez, Victor; Martinez-Mateo, Jesus; Peev, Momtchil; Lopez, Diego; Martin, Vicente

Affiliations

Grupo de investigación en Información y Computación Cuántica (GIICC). Universidad Politécnica de Madrid - Author
Huawei Technol Duesseldorf GmbH, Riesstr 25, D-80992 Munich, Germany - Author
Telefon GCTO, Ronda Comunicac S-N, Madrid 28050, Spain - Author
Univ Politecn Madrid, Ctr Computat Simulat, Campus Montegancedo, E-28660 Madrid, Spain - Author

Abstract

The nature of network services has drastically changed in recent years. New demands require new capabilities, forcing the infrastructure to dynamically adapt to new scenarios. Novel network paradigms, such as software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization, have appeared to provide flexibility for network management and services. The reliance on software and commoditized hardware of these new paradigms introduces new security threats and, consequently, one of the most desired capabilities is a strengthened security layer when connecting remote premises. On the other hand, traditional cryptographic protocols are based on computational complexity assumptions. They rely on certain mathematical problems (e.g., integer factorization, discrete logarithms, or elliptic curves) that cannot be efficiently solved using conventional computing. This general assumption is being revisited because of quantum computing. The creation of a quantum computer would put these protocols at risk and force a general overhaul of network security. Quantum key distribution (QKD) is a novel technique for providing synchronized sources of symmetric keys between two separated domains. Its security is based on the fundamental laws of quantum physics, which makes it impossible to copy the quantum states exchanged between both endpoints. Therefore, if implemented properly, QKD generates highly secure keys, immune to any algorithmic cryptanalysis. This work proposes a node design to provide QKD-enhanced security in end-to-end services and analyze the control plane requirements for service provisioning in transport networks. We define and demonstrate the necessary work-flows and protocol extensions in different SDN scenarios, integrating the proposed solution into a virtual router providing QKD-enhanced IPsec sessions.

Keywords

EncryptionMplsNetconfOpenflowQkdQuantum key distributionRouting protocolsService automationSoftwareSoftware-defined networkingSynchronization

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Journal Of Optical Communications And Networking due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2018, it was in position 12/53, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Computer Science, Hardware & Architecture.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations provided by WoS (ESI, Clarivate), it yields a value for the citation normalization relative to the expected citation rate of: 1.22. This indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 14, 2024)

This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:

  • Weighted Average of Normalized Impact by the Scopus agency: 1.4 (source consulted: FECYT Feb 2024)
  • Field Citation Ratio (FCR) from Dimensions: 6.77 (source consulted: Dimensions Sep 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-09-07, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 28
  • Scopus: 35

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-09-07:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 41.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 41 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 6.

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Germany.

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (AGUADO MARTIN, ALEJANDRO) and Last Author (MARTIN AYUSO, VICENTE).