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Orchestrating Key Scarcity: Global Capacity Allocation in Hybrid QKD-PQC Networks

Pablo P. Rejo, Manuel Fernández‐Veiga, Ana Fernández Vilas, Diego Cajaraville-Aboy, Javier Vecino-Peñas, Rebeca P. Díaz-Redondo · 2026 · arXiv (Cornell University)

DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2610.27332 · cited by 0 works (OpenAlex) · open-access PDF

Spanish

Este artículo presenta un Sistema de Gestión de Claves Distribuidas (DKMS) que proporciona claves de cifrado simétricas cuánticas seguras a las aplicaciones en una red. Para superar las limitaciones de distancia y tasa inherentes a la distribución de claves cuánticas (QKD), la arquitectura adopta un diseño híbrido: utiliza relés de confianza multi-hop para el transporte de claves físicas, mientras aplica una capa de cifrado post-cuántico (PQC) end-to-end para garantizar que el material clave retransmitido permanezca estrictamente protegido de los nodos intermedios. Debido a que QKD transforma la generación de claves en un recurso físico escaso, la gestión de aplicaciones impredecibles plantea un problema crítico de asignación de capacidad. La contribución central de este trabajo es un control

Machine translation (Meta M2M100); the English original follows.

Abstract

This article presents a Distributed Key Management System (DKMS) that provisions quantum-safe symmetric encryption keys to applications across a network. To overcome the distance and rate limitations inherent to Quantum Key Distribution (QKD), the architecture adopts a hybrid design: it utilizes multi-hop trusted relays for physical key transport, while applying an end-to-end Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) layer to ensure the relayed key material remains strictly protected from intermediate nodes. Because QKD transforms key generation into a scarce physical resource, managing unpredictable application demands poses a critical capacity allocation problem. The core contribution of this work is an SDN-driven control plane that globally orchestrates the network. Rather than relying on vulnerable hop-by-hop capacity reservations, a central controller simultaneously computes optimal filling rates and multipath routing for all per-peer key buffers. This global orchestration ensures that no application is starved and that all key buffers synchronize their filling processes. Evaluated on a Kubernetes-based digital twin across five distinct network topologies, the controller successfully filled all key buffers to capacity in under six minutes. Furthermore, under deliberately excessive demand, the network demonstrated graceful degradation, safely rejecting excess requests through controlled rate-limiting rather than experiencing catastrophic failure.

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Topics: Key (lock), Computer science, Computer network, Quantum key distribution, Physical layer, Key management

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