QuIKS: Near-Zero Latency Key Supply with Adaptive Buffering for Resource-Efficient Quantum Key Distribution Networks

Quantum Physics [Submitted on 10 Apr 2026] QuIKS: Near-Zero Latency Key Supply with Adaptive Buffering for Resource-Efficient Quantum Key Distribution Networks Yuxin Chen, Zite Xia, Jian Li, Kaiping Xue, Zhonghui Li, Lutong Chen, Ruidong Li Quantum key distribution (QKD) networks provide information-theoretically secure keys for distant parties, emerging as a vital alternative to classical cryptography infrastructures threatened by quantum computing. In QKD networks, the immediacy of key supply service is crucial to the security and performance of applications, as their data must be encrypted before transmission. While key buffering can enable instant key supply services, existing schemes rely on heuristic solutions that incur prohibitive key resource consumption, thus significantly hindering practical deployment. To address this issue, we propose QuIKS, an instant key supply scheme based on adaptive buffering, offering the dominant advantage of near-zero key supply latency while consuming ultra-low key resources (i.e., ultra-low buffer size). Specifically, it is built upon a novel analytical model that determines the minimum buffer size required to guarantee near-zero-latency key supply performance. Guided by this model, QuIKS introduces a lightweight two-phase control algorithm that dynamically determines key relaying requests and adjusts the buffer size by probing real-time application patterns and network conditions. Experiments on a real QKD network testbed demonstrate that QuIKS achieves near-zero key supply latency while providing a more than 10-fold reduction in key buffer size compared to state-of-the-art schemes. Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph); Networking and Internet Architecture (cs.NI) Cite as: arXiv:2604.09144 [quant-ph]   (or arXiv:2604.09144v1 [quant-ph] for this version)   https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2604.09144 Focus to learn more Submission history From: Jian Li [view email] [v1] Fri, 10 Apr 2026 09:22:51 UTC (17,051 KB) Access Paper: HTML (experimental) view license Current browse context: quant-ph < prev   |   next > new | recent | 2026-04 Change to browse by: cs cs.NI References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADS Google Scholar Semantic Scholar Export BibTeX Citation Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Demos Related Papers About arXivLabs Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)