Randomness mergers: combining the quantum and classical worlds

Abstract

In an ever-evolving digital world, the onset of the Internet of Things leads to a new problem in secure communications. Embedded devices may lack the computational power to generate high entropy random numbers for cryptographic purposes. With proper infrastructure such as a quantum random number generator acting as a server, these devices could utilize randomness mergers to combine their local entropy with that of the cloud to produce cryptographically secure random numbers. This paper evaluates the randomness produced from using an xor scheme and a curve scheme to merge both relatively weak entropy sources and high entropy sources with quantum data. The resulting bit streams are compared to the originals to determine if an improvement in entropy was noticeable.