Chapter 1192 Big Hands Deliver Packages, Small Hands Hand The Keys

After coming out of the laboratory, Lu Zhou signaled Academician Xue to wait for a while, then looked at the two security personnel standing at the door, and asked in a serious tone.

"Adjust the secrecy level here to Class A. No one is allowed to approach this place unless it is me."

The two security guards stood at attention and raised their hands neatly as a military salute.

"yes."

After leaving the Semiconductor Research Institute, Academician Xue asked Lu Zhou who was walking beside him.

"Are they from the army?"

Lu Zhou: "For those who have retired from the army and changed jobs, I have a good relationship with their team leaders, so I helped arrange work."

For those who come out of the army, at least he doesn't have to worry about the political review, and if he fails the political review, Captain Dai will not recommend it to him. Moreover, in terms of security capabilities, those who come out of the army are far better than those recruited through ordinary channels. Even basic training can be omitted, and they can be employed directly.

From its establishment to the present, the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study has not lost even a piece of draft paper, not to mention criminal cases such as material theft, thanks to these lovely people who are dedicated to their duties.

Bringing Academician Xue to the office, Lu Zhou ordered his secretary to pour him a cup of tea, and poured himself a cup of coffee.

After finishing these things, the secretary left the office tactfully and closed the door behind her.

Seeing the door close, Lu Zhou continued to look at the old gentleman sitting opposite him, smiled and said.

"I guess you have a lot of things to ask, please go ahead."

Academician Xue was silent for a while, then said with a soft sigh.

"Before I came here, I did have a lot of confusion, but now... I feel that I have got the answer. Not to mention..."

The old academician's smile carried a slightly complicated feeling.

"...Cryptography can already withdraw from the stage of history."

Lu Zhou shook his head.

"This statement is too absolute. It takes time for any technological upgrade, just like even with fusion energy as a clean and efficient energy source, coal power still occupies this small market share in our Great Western region... "

"What's more, only the application of encryption algorithms in long-distance communication has withdrawn from the stage of history. In short-distance communication from base stations to individuals, as well as in other fields, cryptography can still play a significant role..."

After a pause, Lu Zhou looked at Academician Xue and continued.

"...What is needed is just to make some adjustments."

Repeatedly chewing on Lu Zhou's words, Academician Xue fell into deep thought.

Without disturbing his thinking, Lu Zhou picked up his coffee cup, blew on the curling white mist, and took a sip slowly.

After about five minutes, Academician Xue finally raised his head and said seriously.

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

A smile of approval appeared on Lu Zhou's face.

"certainly."

"I have a few questions and need to consult an expert in the relevant field."

Academician Xue: "Which aspect?"

"About quantum communication."

Hearing this sentence, Academician Xue was slightly stunned, and said with a slightly embarrassed expression: "Quantum communication...I am not an expert in this field, you should find a professor from HKUST..."

"Before you came here, I had sent an email to communicate with the professors of HKUST, and after hearing my question, they recommended you to me."

Looking at Academician Xue, Lu Zhou continued, "In addition to cryptography, you are also an expert in the field of communication engineering. You once worked as a senior engineer at the 46th Institute of Electronics of China, and participated in the construction of early domestic optical fiber networks."

Hearing these nostalgic things, academician Xue had a few flashes of memories in his eyes.

But in the end, he still shook his head.

"Those are old things. I've basically been in the direction of communication security since 10 years ago. I'm afraid it's hard to help you."

"But I believe that things like experience will never become obsolete," Lu Zhou said seriously, "especially when we need to rebuild this communication network."

The moment he heard this sentence, Academician Xue was shocked and looked at Lu Zhou in disbelief.

"You mean, you plan to... you plan to use that kind of...quantum optical fiber? Rebuild the domestic communication network?"

"That's not my plan."

Seeing Academician Xue whose voice was already incoherent, Lu Zhou smiled lightly and continued in a joking tone.

"And, I didn't say it was only domestic."

...

Once the problem of the quantum repeater is solved, the entire quantum communication technology has the possibility of commercialization.

However, quantum communication technology has a fatal shortcoming, that is, the amount of data transmitted per unit time.

Take the submarine optical cable from the west coast of the United States to the east coast of China as an example, its bandwidth is often measured in Tbps.

Data on this scale is not a difficult task for traditional optical fibers, but for quantum communication technology that relies on single-photon entanglement pairs to achieve information transmission, this is a problem that cannot be solved in the short term.

To put it simply, the communication channel based on quantum communication technology is no problem to meet the data exchange between a limited number of enterprises, but it cannot carry the communication of the scale of the Internet at all.

However, this is not without a solution.

According to the IST FP5 report, a 128bit key can guarantee the security of 100Gbit data. In theory, only one quantum communication channel with a bandwidth of Mtps level is needed, which is enough to lock all the information across the Pacific Ocean.

Therefore, a perfect solution is to combine traditional communication means with quantum communication technology, use traditional communication channels to send "locked" information, and then use quantum communication channels to distribute "unlocked" keys.

In an abstract description, the big hand delivers the package, and the small hand delivers the key.

This kind of encryption method similar to "one-time pad" can theoretically reach the level of "unconditional security". If there is only one unique key to unlock the lock, no matter how fast a computer is, it is impossible to steal the key through pure computing power.

In order to realize the separation of the key and the encrypted information, a new set of communication protocol is needed to realize it. Not only that, in order to improve the efficiency of information transmission, the quantum communication network used to distribute keys must be rigorously designed.

It has to be admitted that this is not an easy job.

But in any case, compared to quantum repeaters, it is still much easier.

Without any hesitation, Academician Xue accepted Lu Zhou's invitation on the spot, participated in the project of building a quantum communication network, and stayed with Jinling University in the name of visiting and exchange.

It happened that he was still worrying about how to avoid those colleagues and old friends who were waiting for him to "seek an explanation" from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Although it is easy to keep your mouth shut, the industry circle he is engaged in is really too small.

Even if he doesn't say anything about many things, others can guess everything with just one look.

Whether it's for the overall situation or for himself, leaving for a while is the best choice...

With the joining of Academician Xue, the speed of advancement of the entire quantum communication network project can be described as lightning fast. With the experience of this old man, Lu Zhou quickly found the optimal method of combining quantum communication technology with traditional communication technology, and completed a structural framework for this brand new communication protocol.

In this way, time passed day by day, and finally arrived at the last day of April.

An experimental quantum communication pipeline with a length of about 500 meters was built in a hidden corner of the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study. At the same time, this ivory tower standing at the top of Huaguo's academic circle also welcomed a special guest...