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Determining the Number of Bits Required for the Estimation of the QBER in Quantum Communication Systems

Almeida, A. ; Silva, N. A. ; Muga, N. J. ; André, P.S ; Pinto, A. N.

Determining the Number of Bits Required for the Estimation of the QBER in Quantum Communication Systems, Proc Conf. on Telecommunications - ConfTele, Aveiro, Portugal, Vol. 1, pp. 178 - 181, September, 2015.

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Abstract
We study the impact of errors from polarization rotation in optical fibers and detectors dark counts, in the calculation of the number of bits required for the estimation of the quantum-bit error rate (QBER), in a system of quantum communications. The encoding of bits is performed in photons polarization and the transmission channel is a standard single-mode fiber. The estimation of the QBER is defined considering a criterion of statistical level of confidence. A relation between the number of bits received and the number of bits that must be sent is also discussed. We conclude that: (i) the rotation of polarization presents the major contribution to errors and is as significative as bigger the fiber length and (ii) losses in fibers and optical devices together with a low quantum efficiency of single photon detectors contribute to large requirements of bits to be transmitted.