In mobile networking, specifically in 5G networking, embedded SIM (eSIM) does not rely on the hardware chips to deliver the core network’s public key as traditional SIM cards do. Instead, eSIM utilizes remote digital certificates enabled by Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). In this research, we study the post-quantum transition of eSIM-based mobile networking by applying and incorporating the post-quantum ciphers to the digital certificates and authentication. While building on the existing mutual authentication between the user equipment and core network, we build quantum resistance in the digital signatures used for the digital certificate and authentication so that they are secure against quantum-computing attackers. We implement our scheme using the NIST-standardized post-quantum ciphers to evaluate the computing/time and battery/power overheads, which are important for resource-constrained mobile devices. We compare the post-quantum ciphers with the current quantum-vulnerable ciphers and show that the lattice-based schemes have comparable or even better overhead performances.
In mobile networking, specifically in 5G networking, embedded SIM (eSIM) does not rely on the hardware chips to deliver the core network’s public key as traditional SIM cards do. Instead, eSIM utilizes remote digital certificates enabled by Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). In this research, we study the post-quantum transition of eSIM-based mobile networking by applying and incorporating the post-quantum ciphers to the digital certificates and authentication. While building on the existing mutual authentication between the user equipment and core network, we build quantum resistance in the digital signatures used for the digital certificate and authentication so that they are secure against quantum-computing attackers. We implement our scheme using the NIST-standardized post-quantum ciphers to evaluate the computing/time and battery/power overheads, which are important for resource-constrained mobile devices. We compare the post-quantum ciphers with the current quantum-vulnerable ciphers and show that the lattice-based schemes have comparable or even better overhead performances.
In mobile networking such as 5G, embedded SIM or eSIM does not involve a connectivity-provider-specific hardware chip to deliver the provider’s core network’s public key, in contrast to the traditional SIM. eSIM instead uses the remote digital certificate and PKI to deliver the public key. We study the post-quantum transition by introducing post-quantum digital certificates for eSIM, including how the digital certificate gets used for the mutual authentication between the mobile client and the core network server. We investigate the eSIM authentication and post-quantum digital signature ciphers and outline the plan for the post-quantum design and transition in this paper.
The emergence of quantum computing introduces unprecedented risks to classical cryptographic schemes, particularly digital signatures that safeguard authentication, confidentiality, and data integrity across digital ecosystems. To address these concerns, this paper investigates the adoption of Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) within Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) frameworks, emphasizing its role in strengthening electronic signature (eSign) systems against quantum threats. Traditional PKI implementations rely on algorithms such as RSA and ECC in combination with Hardware Security Modules (HSMs) for secure key management; however, these methods are vulnerable to quantum algorithms like Shor's. We examine how quantum-resistant alternatives-including lattice-based, hash-based, and multivariate polynomial-based schemes standardized by NIST-can be integrated into PKI without compromising interoperability and compliance. A comparative evaluation highlights trade-offs in performance, storage, and computational complexity while demonstrating the feasibility of embedding PQC into existing eSign infrastructures. Our findings underscore the urgency of transitioning towards quantum-safe digital signatures to ensure resilience, regulatory alignment, and long-term trust in national-scale digital services.
Current cellular authentication mechanisms rely primarily on SIM-based Authentication and Key Agreement (AKA), which have scaled successfully worldwide but face challenges as the Internet of Things (IoT) grows to billions of devices. SIM provisioning and lifecycle management become increasingly costly, while reliance on long-term symmetric keys limits revocation flexibility and cross-operator support. To address these issues, we propose a SIM-less, certificate-based authentication framework that integrates Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) with post-quantum cryptography (PQC). Specifically, the framework employs Kyber for key encapsulation and Dilithium for digital signatures, providing quantum-resistant protection for future networks. A key challenge is the computational overhead of PQC on constrained IoT devices; we address this by offloading cryptographic operations to trusted edge servers, whose integrity is validated using attestation mechanisms such as Trusted Platform Modules (TPMs) or secure enclaves. We implement and evaluate the framework in a simulated FutureG environment, comparing IoT-only execution against edge-assisted configurations. Results show that edge offloading reduces TLS handshake latency by up to 96% while maintaining minimal resource usage on devices. These findings demonstrate that PQC-enabled PKI, combined with edge-assisted execution, offers a scalable and practical complement to SIM/AKA for secure and quantum-resilient authentication in FutureG IoT deployments.
The advent of quantum computing threatens to undermine current encryption methods significantly, especially those employed in mobile data transmission networks. Quantum algorithms can solve the computational challenges behind present public-key encryption methods like RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman) and elliptic curve cryptography at a speedy rate. With mobile communication networks handling more and more sensitive information, the availability of secure authentication methods is increasingly important. This project proposes to investigate how mobile data communication systems can leverage post-quantum cryptographic (PQC) techniques to enhance authentication protocols. The research compares some NIST-standardized post-quantum cryptography candidates, i.e., lattice-based, code-based, hash-based, and multivariate polynomial cryptography, focusing on their usage in mobile environments. We establish a guideline for constructing PQC-improved authentication protocols, focusing on their quantum-resistance, computational cost, and appropriateness for resource-constrained mobile devices. Our analysis proves that the regulations successfully protect information’s secrecy, integrity, and authenticity in the post-quantum era. This has led to the development of future-proof, safe, and resilient mobile communication networks. PQC augmented authentication systems offer good resistance against quantum attacks while supporting acceptable performance on mobile devices, as evidenced by previous research. Mobile communication systems can achieve long-term security through PQC, thus safeguarding user data and critical infrastructure against potential adversaries that might employ quantum computing in the future.
Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) generates and distributes digital certificates to provide the root of trust for securing digital networking systems. To continue securing digital networking in the quantum era, PKI should transition to use quantum-resistant cryptographic algorithms. The cryptography community is developing quantum-resistant primitives/algorithms, studying, and analyzing them for cryptanalysis and improvements. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) selected finalist algorithms for the post-quantum digital signature cipher standardization, which are Dilithium, Falcon, and Rainbow. We study and analyze the feasibility and the processing performance of these algorithms in memory/size and time/speed when used for PKI, including the key generation from the PKI end entities (e.g., a HTTPS/TLS server), the signing, and the certificate generation by the certificate authority within the PKI. The transition to post-quantum from the classical ciphers incur changes in the parameters in the PKI, for example, Rainbow I significantly increases the certificate size by 163 times when compared with RSA 3072. Nevertheless, we learn that the current X.509 supports the NIST post-quantum digital signature ciphers and that the ciphers can be modularly adapted for PKI. According to our empirical implementations-based study, the post-quantum ciphers can increase the certificate verification time cost compared to the current classical cipher and therefore the verification overheads require careful considerations when using the post-quantum-cipher-based certificates.
5G technology addresses user privacy concerns in cellular networking by encrypting subscriber identifier with ellip-tic curve-based encryption and then transmitting it as ciphertext known as Subscriber Concealed Identifier (SUCI). However, an adversary equipped with a quantum computer can break a discrete logarithm-based elliptic curve algorithm and the user privacy in 5G is at stake against quantum attacks. In this paper, we study the incorporation of the post-quantum ciphers in the SUCI calculation both at the user equipment and at the core network, which involves the shared key exchange and then using the resulting key for the ID encryption. We experiment on different hardware platforms to analyze the PQC key exchange and encryption using NIST-standardized CRYSTALS-Kyber. Our analyses focus on the performances and compare the Kyber-based key exchange and encryption with the current (pre-quantum) Elliptic-curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDH). The performance analyses are critical because mobile networking involves resource-limited and battery-operating mobile devices. We measure and analyze not only the time and CPU-processing performances but also the energy and power performances. Our results show that Kyber-512 is the most efficient and even has better performance (i.e., faster computations, and lower energy consumption) than ECDH.