Influence of multi-photon pulses on practical differential-phase-shift quantum key distribution

The influence of multi-photon pulses on practical differential-phase-shift quantum key distribution (DPS-QKD) is analysed. We have estimated the information which Eve obtained by PNS (photon-number splitting) attack and BS (beam splitting) attack. The result indicates that the PNS attack and BS attack will not limit the transmission distance as long as we select an appropriate mean photon number. Also, the maximum mean photon number under BS attack in practical DPS-QKD system and the set of practical assumptions about Eve’s capabilities are presented.