The rise of 6G communication networks, powered by artificial intelligence (AI), promises a new era of connectivity with ultra-fast data speeds, intelligent applications, and seamless integration across a wide range of devices. However, the immense volume of sensitive data handled by these ultra-dense networks brings heightened concerns about privacy and security. Quantum cryptography, which leverages the principles of quantum mechanics, offers groundbreaking potential for securing communications; yet, the advent of quantum computing poses significant threats to traditional cryptographic systems. This challenge underscores the need for quantum-resilient cryptographic solutions. This review delves into the intersection of quantum-resilient cryptographic techniques and AI-driven 6G communication networks. It provides a detailed examination of existing quantum-resistant algorithms, evaluates their suitability in AI-enabled 6G systems, and highlights critical challenges and potential future directions. By addressing the pressing demand for secure and resilient communication frameworks, this study contributes to the development of 6G systems that can withstand the security threats posed by the quantum computing era.
The rise of 6G communication networks, powered by artificial intelligence (AI), promises a new era of connectivity with ultra-fast data speeds, intelligent applications, and seamless integration across a wide range of devices. However, the immense volume of sensitive data handled by these ultra-dense networks brings heightened concerns about privacy and security. Quantum cryptography, which leverages the principles of quantum mechanics, offers groundbreaking potential for securing communications; yet, the advent of quantum computing poses significant threats to traditional cryptographic systems. This challenge underscores the need for quantum-resilient cryptographic solutions. This review delves into the intersection of quantum-resilient cryptographic techniques and AI-driven 6G communication networks. It provides a detailed examination of existing quantum-resistant algorithms, evaluates their suitability in AI-enabled 6G systems, and highlights critical challenges and potential future directions. By addressing the pressing demand for secure and resilient communication frameworks, this study contributes to the development of 6G systems that can withstand the security threats posed by the quantum computing era.
The sixth generation (6G) of wireless networks is expected to surpass the limitations of 5G by enabling terabit-level data rates, sub-millisecond latency, and ultra-dense connectivity through the integration of space-air-land-sea infrastructures and AI-driven autonomous management. However, such advancements pose new challenges in computational scalability and security against quantum-enabled threats. Quantum Artificial Intelligence (QAI), combining quantum computing principles with AI, offers exponential computational efficiency, enhanced model capacity, and resilient cryptographic solutions. This paper reviews QAI-based protocols for 6G across three domains: security, focusing on Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) and post-quantum cryptography; computing, including quantumenhanced edge intelligence and hybrid optimization; and data processing, with emphasis on terahertz (THz) channel modeling, holographic content, and real-time decision systems. The convergence of 6G and QAI is shown to mark a paradigm shift toward secure, scalable, and intelligent communication infrastructures of the future.
As we move toward the rollout of 6G networks, we're stepping into an era of groundbreaking technological advancements. These next-generation networks promise ultra-low latency and seamless integration with artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT), unlocking a new level of connectivity and performance. However, with these powerful capabilities come significant security challenges. Traditional encryption methods may not be enough to protect the complex and highly sensitive data traveling through 6G networks. One of the most promising solutions lies in Quantum Communication, particularly Quantum Key Distribution (QKD)-a method that leverages the laws of quantum mechanics to enable highly secure encryption. This paper explores the emerging security risks in both terrestrial and satellite communication channels and reviews current research on integrating quantum communication into 6G infrastructure. Special attention is given to its potential within the metaverse, a rapidly evolving digital environment that demands robust and future-proof security frameworks. Key areas of focus include-Addressing security vulnerabilities in quantum communication, Enhancing infrastructure to support quantum technologies, Reducing error rates in quantum protocols. the paper aims to propose a flexible, forward-looking framework designed to ensure fast, secure communication for critical sectors such as finance, defense, and healthcare.
The advent of 6G networks is expected to accelerate developments in fields like artificial intelligence, smart cities, autonomous technologies, and the Internet of Things (IoT) by providing remarkable connectivity, extremely fast speeds, and sophisticated data-driven services. The security flaws in these networks, however, also change with time, especially in light of the emerging threat of quantum computing, which has the potential to make the cryptographic techniques used today outdated. The importance of quantum cryptography (QC) in defending 6G systems against these kinds of quantum-era threats is highlighted in this section. The significance of post-quantum cryptography and Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) in providing extremely secure, nearly impenetrable encryption to protect the privacy and integrity of 6G communications is emphasized. The basic technology behind QC, how it integrates with 6G infrastructure, and the real-world difficulties of large-scale quantum-secure system deployment are also covered in the conversation. It also explores the impact of quantum-resistant algorithms, the hardware required to enable them, and the governmental actions necessary for widespread use. This part provides a thorough summary of the challenges and possibilities associated with safeguarding 6G networks for a future driven by quantum technology.
In the dynamic landscape of telecommunications, the evolution towards 6G networks represents a significant leap forward in secure and efficient communication. In the context of 6G networks, where the demand for secure and efficient communication is paramount, the implications of quantum threats are profound. The vulnerabilities introduced by quantum computing can potentially render current cryptographic mechanisms obsolete, compromising the confidentiality and integrity of transmitted data. Quantum computing’s unparalleled capabilities have the potential to render traditional cryptographic mechanisms obsolete, jeopardising data confidentiality and integrity. As we stand on the brink of the quantum era, collaborative efforts between the scientific community and industry become imperative to integrate quantum-safe solutions. This chapter focuses on security-preserving techniques in 6G networks, exploring proactive measures to safeguard data integrity and resilience in the face of evolving threats. Through a systematic examination of quantum-safe cryptography and other innovative security solutions, we aim to pave the way for a robust communication infrastructure capable of withstanding the challenges of the quantum age.
The rapid evolution of communication networks, driven by the expansion of heterogeneous environments such as 6G, Internet of Things (IoT), and edge computing, has exposed a critical research gap in the lack of unified frameworks that jointly address intelligent network control and quantum-resilient security. Existing networking protocols were originally designed under static configurations and classical security assumptions, making them increasingly inadequate for dynamic, large-scale, and intelligent infrastructures exposed to quantum-enabled threats. At the same time, the emergence of Quantum Computing (QC) introduces severe security risks, as widely used cryptographic mechanisms supporting protocols such as Transport Layer Security (TLS) and Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) become vulnerable to quantum attacks. This paper presents a structured survey based on a systematic classification of recent literature across AI-enabled networking, Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC), Quantum Key Distribution (QKD), and protocol-level integration approaches. The review categorizes existing works into AI-driven network optimization, quantum-resilient security mechanisms, and hybrid AI–QRC architectural frameworks, enabling a unified comparison of design strategies and deployment models. Furthermore, this survey analyzes how Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques enable autonomous network operations while Quantum-Resilient Cryptography (QRC) approaches provide post-quantum security guarantees, highlighting their complementary roles in next-generation network design. The study further synthesizes key findings for a tightly coupled AI–QRC co-design, which remains an open challenge due to mismatched assumptions in control latency, cryptographic overhead, and protocol adaptability. Additionally, this review emphasizes the need for integrated frameworks that combine intelligence and quantum security to develop adaptive, scalable, and resilient network protocols for the post-quantum era.
The rapid evolution of 5G and emerging 6G telecom networks introduces new security challenges due to the potential threat posed by quantum computing to conventional cryptographic algorithms. This study proposes a post-quantum cryptographic framework for protecting critical 5G and 6G telecom infrastructure against quantum-enabled attacks. The framework investigates quantum-resistant cryptographic mechanisms for secure key establishment, authentication, data confidentiality, and communication integrity. Performance is evaluated using key size, encryption and decryption time, computational overhead, latency, and throughput. The proposed approach aims to achieve a balance between quantum resistance and network efficiency, providing a scalable and resilient security solution for next-generation wireless communication environments.