Abstract The increasing demand for secure communications in mobile and critical infrastructure networks has led to the emergence of Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) as a promising technique for enhancing cryptographic security in next-generation systems. This paper reviews recent progress in integrating QKD within mobile and wireless networks. It focuses on key enabling technologies, such as Software-Defined Networking (SDN), satellite-based, and aerial networks. The paper critically analyzes how these frameworks can address evolving security requirements in sixth-generation (6G) networks and smart city infrastructures. Additionally, it examines the role of Machine Learning (ML) in improving QKD performance and adaptability. Challenges such as key management, mobility support, scalability, and interoperability are explored. These challenges help identify current barriers and research directions. By consolidating developments and highlighting unresolved issues, this study offers researchers valuable insights. It discusses the convergence of quantum communication and advanced mobile architectures, facilitating the design of secure and resilient future communication infrastructures.
Abstract The increasing demand for secure communications in mobile and critical infrastructure networks has led to the emergence of Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) as a promising technique for enhancing cryptographic security in next-generation systems. This paper reviews recent progress in integrating QKD within mobile and wireless networks. It focuses on key enabling technologies, such as Software-Defined Networking (SDN), satellite-based, and aerial networks. The paper critically analyzes how these frameworks can address evolving security requirements in sixth-generation (6G) networks and smart city infrastructures. Additionally, it examines the role of Machine Learning (ML) in improving QKD performance and adaptability. Challenges such as key management, mobility support, scalability, and interoperability are explored. These challenges help identify current barriers and research directions. By consolidating developments and highlighting unresolved issues, this study offers researchers valuable insights. It discusses the convergence of quantum communication and advanced mobile architectures, facilitating the design of secure and resilient future communication infrastructures.
Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) has progressed from a theoretical cryptographic concept to an emerging secure communication infrastructure technology. While early work focused on protocol security and physical-layer feasibility, current research increasingly addresses scalable network deployment, hardware acceleration, and integration with classical communication systems. As QKD expands from point-to-point links to metropolitan, backbone, and hybrid satellite–terrestrial networks, new engineering challenges arise in topology design, entropy generation, real-time key distillation, and multi-vendor interoperability. This survey provides an infrastructure-oriented review of QKD networks, examining architectural models, quantum randomness as a root of trust, FPGA and system-on-chip (SoC) based acceleration techniques, and programmable control-plane integration. Key management system architectures and standardized interfaces are analyzed to highlight their roles in enabling scalable, interoperable deployments. The paper also synthesizes major standardization efforts and deployment initiatives shaping carrier-grade QKD infrastructures. Finally, open engineering challenges, including scalability, control-plane integration, certification harmonization, and hybridization with post-quantum cryptography, are identified, positioning QKD as a foundational component of next-generation secure communication systems.
With the considerable progress of sixth-generation (6G) networks further on the horizon, security has attracted much attention in the face of increasingly sophisticated threats, especially from quantum computing. Classical cryptographic schemes based on computational hardness are becoming more and more brittle, as they can easily be attacked with a quantum computer. Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) arises as a promising tool for information-theoretic security through quantum mechanics to obtain an unbreakable key by exchanging unknown bit sequences. In this paper, we provide an extensive survey on the integration of QKD both in the envisioned 6G architecture, including current implementations, technical feasibility, and deployment of QKD in fiber-based and wireless scenarios. We compare performance metrics of QKD systems in simulating 6G systems such as secret key rates, quantum bit error rates, and robustness to noise and mobility. We propose and investigate hybrid security schemes to leverage both classical PQC and QKD technologies to build multilayered security shields. We highlight the importance of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) in improving QKD systems in terms of smart error correction, dynamic routing, anomaly detection, and adaptive key management, and more. In spite of efforts, the paper points out important research challenges that remain to be addressed in scalability, standardization, cross-operation comparison and demonstration. We finally summarize new directions for quantum-secured networking, offering a future research agenda which combines AI, standardization works and real testbeds to deliver a QKD shift from a lab-scale proof of concept to global-scale 6G network adoption. This review serves as a useful reference for researchers and practitioners as they develop quantum-safe, next-generation communication networks.
As wireless networks become increasingly integral to modern communication infrastructures, the need for robust security mechanisms to protect sensitive information has never been more critical. Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) presents a revolutionary approach to secure communications by leveraging the principles of quantum mechanics to ensure the theoretical unbreakability of cryptographic keys. This study provides a comprehensive review of the current status of QKD technologies within the context of wireless networks, utilizing secondary data sources to analyze recent advancements, implementations, and challenges. The paper begins by outlining the fundamental principles of QKD and its superiority over classical cryptographic methods. It then examines recent developments in QKD protocols and their adaptability to wireless environments, highlighting successful case studies and experimental trials. Key challenges, including technological limitations, integration hurdles with existing network infrastructures, and cost considerations, are discussed in detail. The review also explores emerging trends and innovations, such as hybrid QKD systems and satellite-based implementations, which promise to expand the applicability and feasibility of QKD in wireless networks. Finally, the study delineates future prospects and potential research directions, emphasizing the need for interdisciplinary collaboration to overcome existing limitations and fully realize the potential of QKD in enhancing wireless network security.
Sixth-generation (6G) networks offer unprecedented ultra-reliability, capacity, and low-latency communication. Nevertheless, the same developments also pose security threats to complex communication infrastructures that may be resistant to traditional cryptographic tools, especially in the context of quantum computing. Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) is an innovative technique for achieving unconditional security that leverages quantum-mechanical principles to share cryptographic keys securely. This paper discusses how QKD can be integrated into 6G and beyond networks and used to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of data across applications such as autonomous systems, the Internet of Things (IoT), and smart city infrastructure. This paper explores the architecture of QKD-based 6G communication, key-generation systems, and quantum-resistant network layers. It also examines scalability, synchronization, and hardware implementation, and suggests possible hybrid approaches for integrating classical and quantum security protocols. The results imply that the idea of QKD may become the foundation of safeguarded communication systems in the future, ensuring resilience against attacks in the quantum era and enabling individuals to trust the next generation of wireless.
With the rapid advancement of quantum computing, traditional cryptographic techniques are at risk of devolution, necessitating quantum-resilient alternatives for future communication networks. This systematic literature review evaluates the role of Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) in enhancing the security of sixth-generation (6G) wireless communications. Employing the PRISMA methodology, 48 peer-reviewed studies published between 2016 and May 2025 were identified and analyzed. The review addresses three key research questions: the identification of QKD protocols applicable to 6G, challenges in their integration, and proposed solutions for seamless deployment. Findings reveal that protocols such as BB84, E91, CV-QKD, and MDI-QKD, transmitted via optical fiber and satellite channels, offer promising security guarantees. This review concludes that while QKD can significantly strengthen 6G communications against quantum threats, further interdisciplinary efforts in hardware development, standardization, and pilot implementations are essential. The study offers valuable insights for researchers, engineers, and policymakers working toward secure, quantum-resistant future networks. The study follows the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) methodology to ensure transparency, rigor, and reproducibility. A comprehensive search was conducted across major scientific databases, including IEEE Xplore, SpringerLink, ScienceDirect, and arXiv, using well-defined keywords and Boolean search strategies related to QKD, 6G networks, and quantum communication security. After removing duplicates and applying predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria, a total of 48 peer-reviewed studies published between 2016 and May 2025 were selected for detailed analysis. The selected literature was systematically classified to address three primary research questions: (i) identification of QKD protocols and technologies applicable to 6G networks, (ii) challenges hindering the integration of QKD into 6G architectures, and (iii) solutions and frameworks proposed to facilitate practical deployment. The findings reveal that prominent QKD protocols, including BB84, E91, Continuous-Variable QKD (CV-QKD), and Measurement-Device-Independent QKD (MDI-QKD), demonstrate strong potential for securing 6G communications when deployed over optical fiber and satellite-based channels. However, practical integration faces significant challenges such as scalability limitations, synchronization issues, quantum channel coexistence with classical networks, hardware complexity, and high deployment costs. The review further highlights emerging solutions that leverage Software-Defined Networking (SDN), Network Function Virtualization (NFV), blockchain-based key management, and hybrid classical-quantum security architectures to overcome these obstacles. Ongoing standardization efforts by organizations such as NIST, ETSI, and ITU-T are also identified as critical enablers for real-world adoption .
As sixth-generation (6G) wireless networks come into existence, there is more ever-growing demand for high-speed and secure communication than ever before. Conventional cryptographic methods are facing growing constraints to keep pace with the challenging reality of cyberattacks. Quantum-based communication technologies like quantum key distribution (QKD), quantum encryption, and quantum-resistant protocols provide an inherently secure means of transmitting data. This study examines how quantum communication technologies can be embedded within 6G architectures to provide enhanced data protection. With the help of AI and machine learning, 6G networks are able to anticipate threats and counter them, and quantum technologies offer unbreakable physical-layer encryption. Proposed work examines the security, architectural requirements, and implementation practicalities of this integration. In addition, we discussed the potential effect of quantum computing on present cryptographic techniques and describe future research directions for deployment at scale of quantum-secure communication in next-generation wireless systems.