  The laws of quantum mechanics allow for the distribution of a secret random
key between two parties. Here we analyse the security of a protocol for
establishing a common secret key between N parties (i.e. a conference key),
using resource states with genuine N-partite entanglement. We compare this
protocol to conference key distribution via bipartite entanglement, regarding
the required resources, achievable secret key rates and threshold qubit error
rates. Furthermore we discuss quantum networks with bottlenecks for which our
multipartite entanglement-based protocol can benefit from network coding, while
the bipartite protocol cannot. It is shown how this advantage leads to a higher
secret key rate.
