Survey on Post-Quantum Cryptographic Techniques for Securing MANETs
A. H. Galadima, Ahmed Abubakar Aliyu, F. U. Zambuk +4 more
Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs) enable flexible, infrastructure-less communication for mission critical applications but they are vulnerable impersonation and routing attacks. Quantum computing threatens classical public-key primitives (RSA, ECC) used in MANET security, driving interest in post-quantum cryptography (PQC) for decentralized, resource limited settings. This survey reviews PQC techniques and its application to MANETs, focusing on signature, key exchange, and encryption primitives from lattice based, code base, hash base, and multivariate based families. Synthesizing findings from 40+ studies, we compare security, overheads, and feasibility for constrained nodes and dynamic topologies. Lattice based schemes (Kyber, Dilithium) offer the best balance of security and efficiency, though large keys and CPU costs hinder adoption. Lightweight primitives and hybrid models (PQC with symmetric cryptography) show promise. Key gaps include few lightweight implementations, limited routing level integration (e.g., OLSRv2), and scarce real world validation. Future work should optimize PQC for low power devices, embed it into MANET protocols, and test via simulation and hardware to enable practical, quantum resilient deployments.
BIMA JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY GOMBE•Jan 31, 2026•0 citations