In the quantum computing era, classical cryptography algorithms are expected to be unsafe. To provide a solution to the problem that may occur to this effect, Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) algorithms are being considered as replacements to classical algorithms. It is essential to consider the effect of using PQC algorithms on applications and services as many applications come with strict Quality of Service (QoS) requirements, especially in 5G and beyond 5G applications. Therefore, this paper proposes a technique for selecting a suitable PQC algorithm to achieve an effective utilization of PQC algorithms in applications/protocols. In this study, a rule-based selection technique is adopted. In particular, a PQC selection rule is generated based on an application/protocol traffic pattern/characteristics and the security requirements such as key/signature size, the strength of the PQC algorithm, time taken to share secret keys and so on. Thereafter, the process of selecting a PQC algorithm is presented. To select a suitable PQC algorithm, the use case in which an application traffic belongs is identified, and based on the traffic flow tag, a selection rule is applied. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated by experimenting with the PQC algorithms using the Transport Layer Security (TLS) handshake. The evaluation results show that the proposed PQC selection method is useful in selecting a suitable algorithm based on real application traffic and the QoS requirements.
In the quantum computing era, classical cryptography algorithms are expected to be unsafe. To provide a solution to the problem that may occur to this effect, Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) algorithms are being considered as replacements to classical algorithms. It is essential to consider the effect of using PQC algorithms on applications and services as many applications come with strict Quality of Service (QoS) requirements, especially in 5G and beyond 5G applications. Therefore, this paper proposes a technique for selecting a suitable PQC algorithm to achieve an effective utilization of PQC algorithms in applications/protocols. In this study, a rule-based selection technique is adopted. In particular, a PQC selection rule is generated based on an application/protocol traffic pattern/characteristics and the security requirements such as key/signature size, the strength of the PQC algorithm, time taken to share secret keys and so on. Thereafter, the process of selecting a PQC algorithm is presented. To select a suitable PQC algorithm, the use case in which an application traffic belongs is identified, and based on the traffic flow tag, a selection rule is applied. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated by experimenting with the PQC algorithms using the Transport Layer Security (TLS) handshake. The evaluation results show that the proposed PQC selection method is useful in selecting a suitable algorithm based on real application traffic and the QoS requirements.
The advent of quantum computing threatens the security of classical public-key cryptographic systems, prompting the transition to post-quantum cryptography (PQC). While PQC has been analyzed in theory, its performance in practical wireless communication environments remains underexplored. This paper presents a detailed implementation and performance evaluation of NIST-selected PQC algorithms in user equipment (UE) to UE communications over 5G networks. Using a full 5G emulation stack (Open5GS and UERANSIM) and PQC-enabled TLS 1.3 via BoringSSL and liboqs, we examine key encapsulation mechanisms and digital signature schemes across realistic network conditions. We evaluate performance based on handshake latency, CPU and memory usage, bandwidth, and retransmission rates, under varying cryptographic configurations and client loads. Our findings show that ML-KEM with ML-DSA offers the best efficiency for latency-sensitive applications, while SPHINCS+ and HQC combinations incur higher computational and transmission overheads, making them unsuitable for security-critical but time-sensitive 5G scenarios.
The need for secure communication in the advent of fully developed quantum computers is underscored by the ongoing standardization of Post-Quantum Cryptography algorithms (PQC). However, due to the complexity and long processing time of PQC algorithms, it is impractical to use them directly in most applications. Therefore, a practical implementation, especially in applications that may be vulnerable to quantum attacks, is essential. This paper proposes PQC-based and PQC-AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) hybrid Public Key Encryption (PKE) protocols to secure the communication of application data transmitted between two parties. The parties securely exchange their PQC keys using a PQC Key Encapsulation Mechanism (KEM) scheme. In the PQC-based PKE, the exchanged PQC public keys (asymmetric key cryptography) are used to encrypt data for network transmission. To decrypt the encrypted data, each party uses their private PQC secret key, known only to them, enabling secure end-to-end communication. In the PQC-AES hybrid PKE, a two-way shared secret key is used to generate a symmetric key (symmetric key cryptography) for encryption and decryption. The performance of the proposed protocols is evaluated through experiments with PQC algorithms in a client-server file transfer application. The evaluation results highlight the necessity of considering security, latency, and other metrics when implementing PQC algorithms in various applications. It is confirmed that KYBER1024 and BIKE-L1 achieved similar throughput in comparison to using the conventional AES-256 key encryption algorithm without extensive overheads in the wireless network for a smaller load (e.g., 1 KB size), while the PQC-AES hybrid cryptography protocol may be suitable for applications where the data size is larger,
As quantum computing capabilities accelerate, together with the discovery of Shor's Algorithm, existing encryption protocols, such as TLS (Transport Layer Security) and IPsec (Internet Protocol Security), face the risk of becoming obsolete. This vulnerability poses a significant challenge for 5G and 6G mobile networks, which rely on these protocols for data transmission. This survey explores the potential of Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) algorithms as viable alternatives for securing mobile communications. Through a comprehensive review of NIST-shortlisted PQC algorithms, this paper examines their relevance, efficiency, and adaptability in 5G and 6G architectures. Case studies, including real-world implementations by Amazon Web Services (AWS) and IBM, illustrate the growing acceptance and practical applicability of these quantum-resistant algorithms.
With the increasing speed in the development of quantum computers, secure communication is at risk. A promising candidate to replace existing cryptographic patterns with quantum-secure variants is Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC). This paper presents an empirical analysis of how Post-Quantum Cryptography affects real-world performance compared to classical cryptography. Therefore we analyze the Transport Layer Security (TLS) handshake performance showing that Post-Quantum Cryptography can be as fast or even faster than classical cryptography, depending on the specific encryption and signature algorithms used.
Recent advances in quantum computing have prompted urgent consideration for the migration of classical cryptographic systems to post-quantum alternatives. However, it is impossible to fully understand the impact that migrating to current Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) algorithms will have on various applications without actual implementation of quantum-resistant cryptography. On the other hand, PQC algorithms come with complexity and long processing times, which may impact the Quality of Service (QoS) of many applications. Therefore, PQC-based protocols with practical implementation across various applications are essential. This paper introduces a new framework for PQC standalone and PQC-AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) hybrid Public Key Encryption (PKE) protocols. Building on prior results, we focus on securing applications such as file transfer, video streaming, and chat-based communication using enhanced PQC-based protocols. The extended PQC-based protocols use a sequence number-based mechanism to effectively counter replay and man-in-the-middle attacks and mitigate standard cybersecurity attack vectors. Experimental evaluations examined encryption/decryption speeds, throughput, and processing overhead for these standalone PQC and PQC-AES hybrid schemes, benchmarking them against traditional AES-256 in an existing client-server environment. The results demonstrate that the new approaches achieve a significant balance between security and system performance compared to conventional deployments. Furthermore, the comprehensive security analysis confirms the robustness and effectiveness of the proposed PQC-based protocols across diverse attack scenarios. Notably, the PQC-AES hybrid protocol demonstrates greater efficiency for applications handling larger data volumes (e.g., 10–100 KB) with reduced latency, underscoring the practical necessity of carefully balancing security and operational efficiency in the post-quantum migration process.
The potential of the swift development of quantum computing is an extreme danger to the traditional cryptographic programs, and they are the foundation of the modern communication infrastructure. RSA and ECC are classical public-key algorithms that can be successfully quantum-attacked, in particular, Shor's algorithm can easily factor large integers and calculate discrete logarithms (Bernstein et al., 2017). The Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) has become the key to secure the next-generation communication networks against these threats, which relies on lattice problem-based algorithms, hash-based based algorithms, multivariate polynomials-based algorithms, and code-based cryptography. The paper examines the concepts, design, and implementation issues of PQC within current network infrastructure focusing on the secure transmission of data, authentication, and key management in the upcoming 5G and 6G networks. The approach will include the survey of existing algorithms of PQC, model the integration of protocol in the communication systems and test computational efficiency, security strength, and scalability. It has been found that PQC is suitable to protect network communications against quantum attackers, and achieves reasonable performance, though trade-offs can be seen in terms of computation overhead, key size, and latency. The research offers understanding to the researcher, network engineers and policy makers in order to adopt quantum resistant cryptography protocols to secure the confidentiality, integrity and authenticity of information in the future communication networks.