Boffins receive quantum key from moving plane
A group of German researchers has taken a step closer to achieving quantum key distribution with satellites, receiving quantum keys transmitted by a moving airplane.
The experiment is described in this paper (PDF) presented to the QCrypt conference in Singapore last week.
Led by Sebastian Nauerth at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, the researchers achieved a stable connection over 20 Km for ten minutes, and in that time achieved a key rate of 145 bits/s. While that’s far too slow for a data channel, this only refers to the rate at which the keys are transmitted.
