Polarization based secure AES key transmission over optical fiber

This paper presents the design and implementation of a new technology that can securely transfer symmetric encryption keys, e.g., Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) keys, over an optical fiber using a polarization-based channel. The integrity of the polarization channel against possible leakage of information is established. The polarization channel is used to transfer symmetric key information between the two parties using states of polarization (SoP) as the carrier of information and to detect presence of an intruder. Since the SoP is known to evolve during propagation along optical fiber, a correction matrix is applied to the received state to recover the original SoP. The information transferred over the corrected SoP forms the key for one or more channels on the fiber for symmetric encryption.