IDC researcher Vasilis K. Papanikolaou, together with his co-authors Alexis A. Dowhuszko (Aalto University, Finland), Máté Galambos (Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary), Carlos Guerra-Yánez (Czech Technical University in Prague), Henrique M. Salgado (University of Porto, Portugal), Goran T. Djordjević (University of Niš, Serbia), Philipp Kleinpaß (DLR, Germany), and Niek Doelman (TNO, Netherlands), has received a Prof. A. C. Boucouvalas Best Paper Award of IEEE CSNDSP 2026, including a £150 prize, for the paper “Quantum Key Distribution over Free Space Optical Satellite Links in the 6G Era”.
The paper develops an attenuation-centric framework for satellite-based quantum key distribution (QKD) over free-space optical links, connecting orbital geometry and optical terminal parameters to channel transmissivity, detection statistics, and secret key generation. Using orbital data and experimental parameters from the ‘Micius’ satellite mission, the authors show how the secret fraction exhibits a sharp cutoff with increasing channel attenuation, and how this cutoff governs the time-varying secret key rate during satellite overpasses, establishing satellite QKD links as intermittent, attenuation-limited resources whose availability can be predicted from orbital geometry.
Since 1998, the biennial CSNDSP has been recognised as an international forum for presenting and exchanging research findings on communication systems, communications networks, digital signal processing, and related areas, and this year’s edition was held 15–17 July 2026 in Edinburgh, UK.