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Benchmarking TLS 1.3 with PQC on Realistic Network Conditions

Méndez Veiga, Iyán

Published Dec 3, 2025• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We benchmark the TLS 1.3 handshake using post-quantum cryptographic algorithms, including both key encapsulation mechanisms and digital signature schemes, and compare them against traditional, non-quantum-safe counterparts. Our evaluation covers all FIPS-approved post-quantum standards (ML-KEM, ML-DSA, and SLH-DSA), as well as a selection of digital signature schemes from second-round candidates of the NIST PQC competition that are available in the liboqs library from the Open Quantum Safe project. To assess real-world performance, we simulate various network conditions (rate, delay, and losses) and analyze the impact of post-quantum cryptography on TLS connection latency.

DOI
10.5281/zenodo.17799886

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We benchmark the TLS 1.3 handshake using post-quantum cryptographic algorithms, including both key encapsulation mechanisms and digital signature schemes, and compare them against traditional, non-quantum-safe counterparts. Our evaluation covers all FIPS-approved post-quantum standards (ML-KEM, ML-DSA, and SLH-DSA), as well as a selection of digital signature schemes from second-round candidates of the NIST PQC competition that are available in the liboqs library from the Open Quantum Safe project. To assess real-world performance, we simulate various network conditions (rate, delay, and losses) and analyze the impact of post-quantum cryptography on TLS connection latency.
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.
Quantum computers pose a significant threat to widely used cryptographic schemes, making it crucial to urgently shift to post-quantum protocols that ensure the long-term security of communications. This paper presents a framework for facilitating the transition to a quantum-resistant web by enabling the evaluation of the impact of integrating post-quantum and hybrid cryptographic primitives in the TLS protocol. By leveraging the OpenSSL library, the framework enables the seamless evaluation and comparison of key encapsulation mechanisms (KEMs) and signature schemes provided by the Open Quantum Safe project. The proposed framework is used to analyze different TLS configurations involving classic, hybrid and post-quantum primitives, with a focus on those selected by NIST. The study concentrates on evaluating the performance impact and the data overhead introduced by configurations involving primitives at different security levels. It starts by benchmarking standalone cryptographic primitives and continues with the evaluation of TLS configurations with hybrid and post-quantum KEMs under controlled network conditions, as this is the first natural step for a transition to a quantum-safe TLS. An impact analysis on real-world scenarios follows. Finally, our evaluation concentrates on providing insight into the cost of shifting to TLS configurations involving only hybrid or post-quantum primitives.
Towards the end of the 20. century, quantum computing came into sight by the main effect of Shor's Algorithm. While this algorithm offers a solution for the factorization problem, which makes it exponentially faster, it alongside becomes a critical threat for the encryption schemes since mostly their security mechanisms rely on the difficulty of integer factorization or discrete log problems. Despite it is not known when advanced quantum computers will show up, yet, once it is developed, most existing cryptography will be rendered useless, which means all existing information security will be vulnerable. Owing to this risky situation, The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) launched post-quantum cryptography (PQC) standardization process for the development of PQC schemes. In this paper, we have chosen three key encapsulation mechanisms and two digital signature algorithms with different parameter sets from the round three submissions. We measured their TLS 1.3 handshake performance using two resource-constrained devices and compared it to that of classical encryption and digital signature schemes. Experiment results showed that post-quantum algorithms come with an extra message overhead while their handshake delay values are promising.
Quantum Computers (QCs) differ radically from traditional computers and can efficiently solve mathematical problems fundamental to our current cryptographic algorithms. Although existing QCs need to accommodate more qubits to break cryptographic algorithms, the concern of ''Store-Now-Decrypt-Later'' (i.e., adversaries store encrypted data today and decrypt them once powerful QCs become available) highlights the necessity to adopt quantum-safe approaches as soon as possible. In this work, we investigate the performance impact of Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) on TLS 1.3. Different signature algorithms and key agreements (as proposed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)) are examined through black- and white-box measurements to get precise handshake latencies and computational costs per participating library. We emulated loss, bandwidth, and delay to analyze constrained environments. Our results reveal that HQC and Kyber are on par with our current state-of-the-art, while Dilithium and Falcon are even faster. We observed no performance drawback from using hybrid algorithms; moreover, on higher NIST security levels, PQC outperformed any algorithm in use today. Hence, we conclude that post-quantum TLS is suitable for adoption in today's systems.
Quantum computing poses a significant threat to classical cryptographic schemes widely used in modern networks, particularly RSA and ECC, which are vulnerable to Shor’s algorithm. To address this challenge, this study conducts a post-quantum security evaluation of TLS 1.3 by implementing hybrid X25519+Kyber key exchange and ML-DSA digital signatures. The objective is to assess the performance, overhead, and effectiveness of hybrid TLS in ensuring long-term data confidentiality within enterprise environments. The research method involves building a server–client testbed using OpenSSL with the oqs-provider, applying network load simulations under various latencies, and measuring key metrics including handshake latency, CPU utilization, certificate size, and client compatibility. The results indicate that hybrid TLS 1.3 with X25519+Kyber introduces only moderate handshake latency, while ML-DSA increases certificate size but remains manageable for deployment in modern enterprise systems. The conclusion of this study is that combining X25519+Kyber with ML-DSA offers an effective transition path towards quantum-safe networks without significantly sacrificing system performance..
Growing awareness of the impact of quantum threat on classical cryptography directly translates into a growing demand for accurate network simulation tools capable of estimating the integration effects of quantum-safe cryptography in current systems. In particular, the adoption of Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) has a direct impact on the performance of network endpoints and transmission overhead. This also affects the scalability of widely adopted security protocols such as TLS and SSH. In this paper, we present a throughput-oriented analytical model that provides a tight upper bound on the maximum sustainable rate of post-quantum secure connection establishment in TLS and SSH. This model takes into account both endpoint and network capacity constraints, decomposing the handshake process into dominant cryptographic operation time and network transmission time. Identifying the bottleneck allows us to derive the achievable throughput in terms of handshakes per second. The experimental results provided show the accuracy of the model against the data obtained from an experimental testbed using, among others, NIST standard primitives from FIPS 203, 204, and 205, including ML-KEM and ML-DSA. Finally, we integrate our model into a network environment and demonstrate how it can be leveraged to enable efficient resource allocation among multiple endpoints, optimizing PQC traffic in multiple-unicast scenarios.