In this letter, a lightweight post-quantum cryptographic protocol specifically designed for resource-constrained IoT edge devices is presented, addressing the vulnerability of conventional encryption to quantum computing attacks. The proposed protocol employs a modified NTRU-based algorithm with reduced parameter sizes, achieving switch production in 12.4 ms, encryption in 8.2 ms, and total energy consumption of 4.2 mJ per exchange - 63% lower than standard post-quantum protocols. Experimental results demonstrate resistance against quantum attacks exceeding 1018 processes while maintaining response times under 50 ms, with a compression mechanism reducing message size to 186 bytes. The protocol achieves an optimal balance between post-quantum security and operational efficiency, offering a practical solution for narrow-bandwidth, battery-limited IoT environments.
In this letter, a lightweight post-quantum cryptographic protocol specifically designed for resource-constrained IoT edge devices is presented, addressing the vulnerability of conventional encryption to quantum computing attacks. The proposed protocol employs a modified NTRU-based algorithm with reduced parameter sizes, achieving switch production in 12.4 ms, encryption in 8.2 ms, and total energy consumption of 4.2 mJ per exchange - 63% lower than standard post-quantum protocols. Experimental results demonstrate resistance against quantum attacks exceeding 1018 processes while maintaining response times under 50 ms, with a compression mechanism reducing message size to 186 bytes. The protocol achieves an optimal balance between post-quantum security and operational efficiency, offering a practical solution for narrow-bandwidth, battery-limited IoT environments.
In this work, a lightweight post-quantum cryptographic protocol specifically designed for resource-constrained IoT edge devices is presented, addressing the vulnerability of conventional encryption to quantum computing attacks. The proposed protocol employs a modified NTRU-based algorithm with reduced parameter sizes, achieving switch production in 12.4 ms, encryption in 8.2 ms, and total energy consumption of 4.2 mJ per exchange - 63% lower than standard post-quantum protocols. Experimental results demonstrate resistance against quantum attacks exceeding 1018 processes while maintaining response times under 50 ms, with a compression mechanism reducing message size to 186 bytes. The protocol achieves an optimal balance between post-quantum security and operational efficiency, offering a practical solution for narrow-bandwidth, battery-limited IoT environments.
Many post-quantum cryptographic schemes have been proposed in the literature, offering resistance to attacks launched by quantum computers. Due to its promising security properties, NTRU was selected as a candidate in the final round of the NIST competition on post-quantum cryptography. However, this method poses challenges for constrained devices due to its high computation and memory requirements. Motivated by the need to extend the lifetime of resource-constrained IoT devices while still being able to withstand a quantum attacker, in this chapter we propose a new NTRU-based collaborative encryption scheme for such devices. Our scheme preserves the confidentiality of sensitive information exchanged among constrained IoT devices deployed in an edge computing architecture. Our approach distributes the workload of the cryptographic operations among the edge nodes and IoT devices within the same network. This collaborative approach enables IoT devices to significantly reduce their computational cost while maintaining data confidentiality. Additionally, the proposed distribution of computing allows scalability and a better sustainability of IoT environments. Finally, we demonstrate through empirical evaluation and extensive simulation that our scheme is secure, improves energy saving and resource utilization in IoT networks, and is more efficient than the traditional centralized approach.
The explosion of constrained IoT devices with limited resources has increased the necessity of having efficient security measures to counter both the classical and new quantum threat. In this paper, we introduce Q-IoTGuard, a simple quantum cryptography platform that can be used in heterogeneous IoT networks. The model combines entanglement-assisted quantum key distribution (QKD) with lattice-based post-quantum encryption (PQC) in order to guarantee secure communication with a minimum of computational and energy overhead. The methodology commences with data preprocessing, in which the traffic of IoT and characteristics of the devices are organized, standardized and filtered in order to support the efficient cryptographic operations. Raw data is first fed into quantum-assisted key generation with simplified BB84 protocols with error correction and privacy amplification. Lightweight PQC encrypts then message providing resistance against quantum-enabled attacks. The simulation outcomes show that Q-IoTGuard has a low-key generation time, low latency, low-energy consumption, and high quantum attack resistance among sensors, actuators, and gateway devices. The flow-based architecture, which incorporates preprocessing, key gen, and lightweight encryption would make the framework practical to be deployed on resource-constrained IoT devices. Q-IoTGuard is a new scalable and energy-efficient system of securing next-generation IoT networks that addresses the gap between theoretical quantum security and the practical implementation.
Abstract The increasing advancement of quantum computing threatens the security foundations of classical public-key cryptosystems, particularly RSA and ECC, which remain widely deployed across IoT infrastructures. However, existing post-quantum cryptographic (PQC) schemes are computationally intensive and often unsuitable for resource-constrained IoT devices where memory, CPU cycles, and battery capacity are severely limited. This work proposes EAL-PQCF, an Energy-Efficient Adaptive Lightweight Post-Quantum Cryptographic Framework explicitly designed for constrained IoT environments. The framework introduces a three-mode adaptive PQC strategy consisting of Eco-Secure, Standard-Secure, and Quantum-Threat modes, each selected dynamically based on device battery level, CPU load, and message sensitivity. A Python-based virtual testbed incorporating a simulated IoT device model, lattice-based PQC primitives, an energy estimation module, and an adaptive decision engine is developed for performance evaluation. Experimental results demonstrate that EAL-PQCF achieves 18–36% energy savings, 14–29% reduction in CPU cycles, and significantly improved battery longevity compared to baseline PQC methods. The proposed solution bridges the gap between high-security quantum-resistant cryptography and the practical constraints of IoT devices, offering a scalable pathway for secure next-generation IoT deployments.
The emergence of quantum computing threatens classical cryptographic systems, including RSA and ECC, potentially compromising the security of pervasive Internet of Things (IoT) deployments. Resourceconstrained IoT devices—such as sensors, embedded controllers, and microcontrollers—face significant challenges in adopting post-quantum cryptographic (PQC) protocols due to computational, memory, and energy limitations. This paper proposes AQ-PQC, an adaptive lightweight hybrid key exchange protocol combining Kyber lattice-based KEM and lightweight elliptic curve cryptography (ECC), specifically designed for constrained devices. AQ-PQC introduces a dynamic parameter tuning algorithm that adjusts key sizes, handshake rounds, and compression ratios based on real-time device state and network conditions. Formal security analysis under the IND-CCA model demonstrates quantum-resistance and forward secrecy. Extensive hardware implementation on Raspberry Pi 4 and ESP32 devices reveals a significant reduction in handshake latency, energy consumption, and memory footprint compared to conventional PQC protocols. The proposed framework provides a practical, reproducible, and secure methodology for post-quantum IoT communications, supporting heterogeneous and resource-limited networks.
Abstract The Post-Quantum Lightweight Key Sharing Protocol for Secure MQTT-Based IoT Networks (PQLKS-MQTT) addresses the critical need for quantum-resistant and resource-efficient security in IoT communications. As the proliferation of IoT devices continues, securing MQTT-based networks against evolving threats, including quantum attacks, becomes imperative. PQLKS-MQTT integrates the Kyber Key Encapsulation Mechanism for post-quantum key exchanges, along with BLAKE2s hashing and ChaCha20 encryption, to ensure robust security with minimal resource consumption. Implemented using the Cooja simulator with Contiki OS, Eclipse Mosquitto MQTT broker, and Open Quantum Safe (liboqs) library, the protocol demonstrates superior performance compared to state-of-the-art solutions. Experimental results show that PQLKS-MQTT achieves the lowest CPU energy consumption (0.0000021 mJ), fastest execution time (0.35 seconds), and minimal computational (260 CPU cycles) and communication overheads (55 bytes), with only a slight increase in average energy consumption (0.00145 mJ) due to post-quantum cryptographic operations. This balance between enhanced security and efficient resource utilization makes PQLKS-MQTT a suitable solution for resource-constrained IoT devices and large-scale deployments, offering a scalable, quantum-safe communication framework for future IoT ecosystems.