PYNQ-based rapid FPGA implementation of quantum key distribution

Abstract

In this paper, we present a real-time Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) implementation on Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) for secure communication. We propose a novel methodology with a Python-based programming interface for rapid development on FPGA. Our methodology revolves three phases of development. In the first phase, a reference model of an entangled photon source and the proposed QKD system are developed in Python. Next, the reference model is passed through a thorough verification phase. In the second phase, the reference model is implemented on the Processing System (PS) part of the FPGA. Finally in the third phase, the computationally intensive part of the QKD architecture is off-loaded on to the Programmable Logic (PL) part of the FPGA for acceleration. We employ PYNQ framework in our QKD development and successfully combine the convenience of Python productivity with FPGA based acceleration.